What I’ve Learned (So Far!) About Climate Action, the Pacific, and World Bank Climate Finance
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This is What Climate Change Mitigation Looks Like in 20 Years
“Do you guys know what a floppy disk is?” One of my senior colleagues asked her younger co-workers over lunch at work recently. Their quizzical looks answered her question.
Understandable. People of my generation do not depend on floppy disks. It is tough for us to appreciate why it was impossible to use the landline and the Internet simultaneously. Memories of our family computer – a bulky deskbound computer that would heat up minutes after we’d switched it on – are tucked in the fringes of our minds.
Perhaps twenty years from now we will be asking similar questions – on our progress in mitigating climate change.
Why Did You Guys Throw Waste Away Without a Second Thought?
In 2039, waste – neither data nor oil – is the new gold. Similar to major oil companies expanding their portfolios by acquiring green energy firms, mining conglomerates are rushing to invest in urban mining. Sewage is sought after as material for syngas, a mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. Syngas can serve as both an immediate source of fuel and an intermediary to other sources of fuel. Moreover, syngas has been proven to be a cleaner source of fuel. And just as how Impossible Burgers started to gain traction twenty years ago, people are embracing the concept of their clothes being made out of recycled plastic.
All of this is thanks to technological advancements and increased economies of scale.
We may have had these ideas twenty years ago in 2019, but the cost of such technology limited us. This is nothing new. Singapore had the idea of recycling water on a mass scale in the seventies. It only materialized thirty years later in 2003, when the technology required was reliable and affordable enough to scale NEWater production.
Given the technological and economic constraints back then, achieving water recycling in thirty years can be considered impressive. Now that we have a deeper recognition of the value of waste, we are taking aggressive steps to make our 2039 economy completely circular.
An exhibit simulating microfiltration in water treatment at the NEWater Visitor’s Centre.
Why Weren't Integrated Waste Management Facilities (IWMFs) Commonplace?
Syngas is a highlight product of waste treatment (the exact term is gasification) in IWMFs, one-stop hubs that reincarnate the different types of waste that we produce. Compared to traditional waste management plants, IWMFs are recognized to be more energy efficient and land optimising. Given that syngas is an energy source, integrated waste management facilities double as waste-to-energy facilities.
These are everywhere in 2039. In other words, whatever is flushed down the toilet, whatever leftover food that was thrown away a few hours ago ends up as electricity powering washing machines and refrigerators. In a few hours, not a few days.
IWMFs started out as centralized facilities, aimed at treating waste produced at the city level. Waste citywide was transported across the city to centralized IWMFs in Deep Tunnel Sewage Systems (DTSS), an equivalent of highways for waste. The idea of decentralized IWMFs came later, when stakeholders realized that it costs less to transport waste across a shorter distance and treat waste on a localized scale. Today, decentralized IWMFs are found in every district, and are responsible for generating energy for each district. They can also be found at commercial sites that are known to generate huge amounts of waste, such as shopping centers. While centralized IWMFs are more applicable for industrial purposes today, decentralized IWMFs are more prominent and relevant to our daily lives.
Hence, IWMFs then and now are analogous to first generation IBM computers vs. Macbooks. Both the former and the latter started out as centralized devices, evolving to decentralized, cheaper, ubiquitous and space-optimizing devices along the way.
An overview of Singapore’s centralized Integrated Waste Management Facility (IWMF) that accounts for various forms of waste.The first phase will be complete in 2024.
While investment backing and technological advances played key roles, it is important to note that the collection of waste entering IWMFs still needed to undergo some form of sorting before being fully utilized. Considering the sheer amount of waste produced each day, it was more cost-effective to have enforcement in place to drive the public and businesses to sort their waste.
Unfortunately, we were only starting to get serious about waste management in 2019 (it can be troublesome to sort waste, we know). One facet of Singapore’s Zero Waste Masterplan that launched in 2019 mandated that developers of new premises that were expected to be large food-waste generators set aside space for food-waste treatment systems from 2021, and treat such waste on-site from 2024. There were also plans made for campaigns to educate the public on recycling, with enforcement to kick in if necessary.
Meanwhile, we were also starting to experiment with decentralized IWMFs. During the Ecosperity Forum held in 2019, electrical company SP Group signed an agreement with Gardens by the Bay to collaborate on a two-year pilot project that aimed to tap the waste generated within the park and use it to generate the energy needed to run the tourist attraction. Gardens by the Bay was recognized for its sustainability mechanisms, which made it a suitable place to pilot this project.
How Did We Make the Shift to the Cleaner Sources of Energy We Use Today?
We employ a multi-pronged approach. Oil companies are motivated to stay relevant by diversifying their portfolios and investing in green energy. Meanwhile, we decentralize energy production, giving households and businesses the means to produce their own electricity by harnessing greener energy. We are considering encouraging peer to peer (P2P), or even consumer to consumer (C2C) trade of electricity. This is plausible considering the decreasing costs of production of green energy.
During the Innovate4Climate Forum held in Singapore in 2019, Steven Schofield, Senior Adviser on Energy and Climate Policy at Shell remarked that Shell is “not an oil company, but an energy company”. Indeed, Shell had a vision of becoming the world’s “the largest electricity power company in the world in the early 2030s”, as quoted from Maarten Wetselaar, director of Shell’s integrated gas and new-energies unit, in a televised interview with Bloomberg in March 2019.
In addition, Karen Muhksyan, Head of the Department for Territorial Development and Environmental Issues of Armenia, shared in 2019 that the Armenian government was using a loan program to encourage consumers to install solar panels so they could generate their own electricity. Moreover, consumers could sell surplus electricity to the Electric Networks of Armenia, a state-managed electrical company.
When the big players act, that’s the time for smaller stakeholders to take a leaf out of their books before they lose relevance in the market. To all the businesses in 2019, you know what to do.
Our actions today determine our future.
The Final Word: Back to 2019
Given the Paris Agreement’s emphasis on innovative financial mechanisms and technological advancements and in our quest to make our planet a sustainable one, twenty years from now we may find ourselves looking back at how we used to live in the same way we look at modems currently.
And that is something I look forward to.
Joyce Gao, reporting from the #YouthTakeover team at Innovate4Climate in Singapore. Joyce will soon be entering her Junior year as a student at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information under Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
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2020 Deforestation Targets Lead to Positive Outcomes--Even If We're Behind Schedule
This article originally ran in the Nature Conservancy's Global Insights.
Another year down, another year closer to the 2020 deadline of the New York Declaration on Forests. In 2014, more than 50 companies, including household names like Unilever, Cargill, Nestle and Walmart, signed the declaration, committing to eliminate deforestation in four key commodities by 2020: beef, soy, palm oil, and pulp and paper. This enormous undertaking is a stepping stone to the even bigger goal of eliminating deforestation in all supply chains by 2030.
The 2020 goal isn’t going to happen, but that’s okay. I’m here to tell companies: don’t despair.
I understand the angst that some corporate leaders may be feeling. From their standpoint, there’s only a year left before failure to meet the 2020 deadline—and before NGOs come after them for dropping the ball.
But I see things a little differently. Companies have much to be applauded for—as long as they have a solid plan in place to further ramp up progress toward their commitments.
The 2020 deforestation goals represent the first serious attempt to implement deforestation commitments. Companies made timebound plans and pulled business units in key producing countries into cross-company planning on deforestation (often for the first time). These companies gained a much better sense of their deforestation footprints, which allowed them to prioritize strategies and resources. For example, many companies decided to focus on palm oil in Indonesia, soy in Brazil, and cocoa in Cote D’Ivoire. None of that would have happened without the urgency created by the 2020 commitments.
Meanwhile, NGOs mobilized in two key areas: tools and transparency.
Implementing massive deforestation commitments requires sophisticated tracking and monitoring technology. But until recently, these tools didn’t exist. So the World Resources Institute developed Global Forest Watch, the first monitoring platform that tracked forest loss on a global scale. It spun off Global Forest Watch Pro, which allows companies to zero in on specific supply chains in specific places. The Stockholm Environment Institute and Global Canopy Program developed TRASE, a tracking tool that allows companies to see where certain commodities are going, and which destinations are linked to deforestation in areas of origin. This is a key first step to understanding a company’s deforestation footprint and targeting actions to improve it.
Within origination countries, NGOs and companies have collaborated as never before to produce innovative tools to help implement commitments. TNC worked with the soy sector in Brazil to produce Agroideal, for example, which helps market actors identify cleared land that is environmentally suitable and economically viable for soy expansion. This relieves pressure to cut down native habitat in the Cerrado, Brazil’s vast and incredibly biodiverse savanna.
The second component is transparency. When the companies first made these deforestation commitments, they lacked the clarity they needed to implement them. For example, what definitions should they use for key terms like forests, deforestation and conversion? What are the best monitoring options? What are expectations and standards around transparency, verification, supply chain management? In response, environmental NGOs—like TNC, Rainforest Alliance and Greenpeace, and others—banded together and established the Accountability Framework to fill the information gap and produce guidance for companies, much of which has already been road-tested with businesses around the world.
These business operation changes, new technologies and working coalitions would likely not have happened without the 2020 commitments. They generated urgency and unlocked critical funding. Now it’s up to companies to develop credible plans to follow through on their 2030 deforestation commitments. That’s what NGOs are looking for now.
So what does a credible plan look like? Benchmark against the Accountability Framework; cross-check planning against it; take advantage of tools like Global Forest Watch and Agroideal; and be sure to work with supply chain partners and governments. It takes a village to get this important work done.
I’m optimistic about 2019, but I’m also a realist. I know the challenges. Both NGOs and companies need to do much more on beef, which alone accounts for half of deforestation globally. We need to bring emerging market actors, especially China, into the conversation. We need to be much more inventive on mobilizing capital to help farmers as they transition to zero deforestation and zero conversion production.
And since deforestation and land conversion account for about 15% of global carbon emissions, we need to do all this very quickly—before time runs out on the opportunity to control climate change.
But the 2020 deforestation commitments—and the results we’re seeing today—demonstrate that we are moving forward. As the climate change agenda and deforestation agendas start to converge, I hope to see even more aggressive action in this space—from companies and NGOs alike. We’re in a great place to get started. Let’s get to work.
Global mean temperatures in 2017 were 1.1 °C ± 0.1 °C above pre-industrial levels. Whilst 2017 was a cooler year than the record-setting 2016, it was still one of the three warmest years on record, and the warmest not influenced by an El Niño event. The average global temperature for 2013–2017 is close to 1 °C above that for 1850–1900 and is also the highest five-year average on record. The world also continued to see rising sea levels, with some acceleration, and increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases.
The Living Planet Report, WWF’s flagship publication released every two years, is a comprehensive study of trends in global biodiversity and the health of the planet. The Living Planet Report 2018 is the twelfth edition of the report and provides the scientific evidence to what nature has been telling us repeatedly: unsustainable human activity is pushing the planet’s natural systems that support life on Earth to the edge.
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UN Secretary-General's remarks on Climate Change (as delivered)
Dear friends of planet Earth,
Thank you for coming to the UN Headquarters today.
I have asked you here to sound the alarm.
Climate change is the defining issue of our time – and we are at a defining moment.
We face a direct existential threat.
Climate change is moving faster than we are – and its speed has provoked a sonic boom SOS across our world.
If we do not change course by 2020, we risk missing the point where we can avoid runaway climate change, with disastrous consequences for people and all the natural systems that sustain us.
That is why, today, I am appealing for leadership – from politicians, from business and scientists, and from the public everywhere.
We have the tools to make our actions effective.
What we still lack – even after the Paris Agreement – is the leadership and the ambition to do what is needed.
Dear friends,
Let there be no doubt about the urgency of the crisis.
We are experiencing record-breaking temperatures around the world.
According to the World Meteorological Organization, the past two decades included 18 of the warmest years since 1850, when records began.
This year is shaping up to be the fourth hottest.
Extreme heatwaves, wildfires, storms and floods are leaving a trail of death and devastation.
Last month the state of Kerala in India suffered its worst monsoon flooding in recent history, killing 400 people and driving 1 million more from their homes.
We know that Hurricane Maria killed almost 3,000 people in Puerto Rico last year, making it one of the deadliest extreme weather disasters in U.S. history.
Many of those people died in the months after the storm because they lacked access to electricity, clean water and proper healthcare due to the hurricane.
What makes all of this even more disturbing is that we were warned.
Scientists have been telling us for decades. Over and over again.
Far too many leaders have refused to listen.
Far too few have acted with the vision the science demands.
We see the results.
In some situations, they are approaching scientists’ worst-case scenarios.
Arctic sea ice is disappearing faster than we imagined possible.
This year, for the first time, thick permanent sea ice north of Greenland began to break up.
This dramatic warming in the Arctic is affecting weather patterns across the northern hemisphere.
Wildfires are lasting longer and spreading further.
Some of these blazes are so big that they send soot and ash around the world, blackening glaciers and ice caps and making them melt even faster.
Oceans are becoming more acidic, threatening the foundation of the food chains that sustain life.
Corals are dying in vast amounts, further depleting vital fisheries.
And, on land, the high level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is making rice crops less nutritious, threatening well-being and food security for billions of people.
As climate change intensifies, we will find it harder to feed ourselves.
Extinction rates will spike as vital habitats decline.
More and more people will be forced to migrate from their homes as the land they depend on becomes less able to support them.
This is already leading to many local conflicts over dwindling resources.
This past May, the World Meteorological Organization reported that the planet marked another grim milestone: the highest monthly average for carbon dioxide levels ever recorded.
Four hundred parts per million has long been seen as a critical threshold.
But we have now surpassed 411 parts per millions and the concentrations continue to rise.
This is the highest concentration in 3 million years.
Dear friends,
We know what is happening to our planet.
We know what we need to do.
And we even know how to do it.
But sadly, the ambition of our action is nowhere near where it needs to be.
When world leaders signed the Paris Agreement on climate change three years ago, they pledged to stop temperatures rising by less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to work to keep the increase as close as possible to 1.5 degrees.
These targets were really the bare minimum to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
But scientists tell us that we are far off track.
According to a UN study, the commitments made so far by Parties to the Paris Agreement represent just one-third of what is needed.
The mountain in front of us is very high.
But it is not insurmountable.
We know how to scale it.
Put simply, we need to put the brake on deadly greenhouse gas emissions and drive climate action.
We need to rapidly shift away from our dependence on fossil fuels.
We need to replace them with clean energy from water, wind and sun.
We must halt deforestation, restore degraded forests and change the way we farm.
We need to embrace the circular economy and resource efficiency.
Our cities and transport sectors will need to be overhauled.
How we heat, cool and light our buildings will need to be rethought so we waste less energy.
And this is exactly where this conversation can become exciting.
Because, so much of the conversation on climate change focuses on the doom and gloom.
Of course, warnings are necessary. But fear will not get the job done.
No, what captures my imagination is the vast opportunity afforded by climate action.
Dear friends,
Enormous benefits await humankind if we can rise to the climate challenge.
A great many of these benefits are economic.
I have heard the argument – usually from vested interests -- that tackling climate change is expensive and could harm economic growth.
This is hogwash.
In fact, the opposite is true.
We are experiencing huge economic losses due to climate change.
Over the past decade, extreme weather and the health impact of burning fossil fuels have cost the American economy at least 240 billion dollars a year.
This cost will explode by 50 per cent in the coming decade alone.
By 2030, the loss of productivity caused by a hotter world could cost the global economy 2 trillion dollars.
More and more studies also show the enormous benefits of climate action.
Last week I was at the launch of the New [Climate] Economy report from the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate Change.
It shows that that climate action and socio-economic progress are mutually supportive, with gains of 26 trillion dollars predicted by 2030 compared with business as usual. If we pursue the right path.
For example, for every dollar spent restoring degraded forests, as much as $30 dollars can be recouped in economic benefits and poverty reduction.
Restoring degraded lands means better lives and income for farmers and pastoralists and less pressure to migrate to cities.
Climate-resilient water supply and sanitation could save the lives of more than 360,000 infants every year.
And clean air has vast benefits for public health.
The International Labour Organization reports that common sense green economy policies could create 24 million new jobs globally by 2030.
In China and the United States, new renewable energy jobs now outstrip those created in the oil and gas industries.
And, in Bangladesh the installation of more than four million solar home systems has created more than 115,000 jobs and saved rural households over 400 million dollars in polluting fuels.
So, not only would a shift to renewable energy save money, it would also create new jobs, waste less water, boost food production and clean the polluted air that is killing us.
There is nothing to lose from acting; there is everything to gain.
Now, there are still many who think that the challenge is too great.
But I deeply disagree.
Humankind has confronted and overcome immense challenges before; challenges that have required us to work together and to put aside division and difference to fight a common threat.
That is how the United Nations came into action.
It is how we have to helped to end wars, to stop diseases, to reduce global poverty and to heal the ozone hole.
Now we stand at an existential crossroad.
If we are to take the right path – the only sensible path -- we will have to muster the full force of human ingenuity.
But that ingenuity exists and is already providing solutions.
And so dear friends,
Another central message - technology is on our side in the battle to address climate change.
The rise of renewable energy has been tremendous.
Today, it is competitive [with] – or even cheaper – than coal and oil, especially if one factors in the cost of pollution.
Last year, China invested 126 billion dollars in renewable energy, an increase of 30 per cent on the previous year.
Sweden is set to hit its 2030 target for renewable energy this year – 12 years early.
By 2030, wind and solar energy could power more than a third of Europe.
Morocco is building a solar farm the size of Paris that will power more than one million homes by 2020 with clean, affordable energy.
Scotland has opened the world’s first floating wind farm.
There are many other signs of hope.
Countries rich in fossil fuels, like the Gulf States and Norway, are exploring ways to diversify their economies.
Saudi Arabia is investing heavily in renewables to move from an oil economy to an energy economy.
Norway’s 1 trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund – the largest in the world – has moved away from investments in coal and has dropped a number of palm and pulp-paper companies because of the forests they destroy.
There are also promising signs that businesses are waking up to the benefits of climate action.
More than 130 of the world’s largest and most influential businesses plan to power their operations with 100 per cent renewable energy.
Eighteen multinationals will shift to electric vehicle fleets.
And more than 400 firms will develop targets based on the latest science in order to manage their emissions.
One of the world’s biggest insurers – Allianz – will stop insuring coal-fired power plants.
Investments are shifting too.
More than 250 investors representing 28 trillion dollars in assets have signed on to the Climate Action 100+ initiative.
They have committed to engage with the world’s largest corporate greenhouse [gas] emitters to improve their climate performance and ensure transparent disclosure of emissions.
Many such examples are going to be showcased this week at the important Global Climate Action Summit being convened by Governor Brown in California.
All the pioneers I mentioned have seen the future.
They are betting on green because they understand this is the path to prosperity and peace on a healthy planet.
The alternative is a dark and dangerous future.
These are all important strides.
But they are not enough.
The transition to a cleaner, greener future needs to speed up.
We stand at a truly “use it or lose it” moment.
Over the next decade or so, the world will invest some 90 trillion dollars in infrastructure.
And so we must ensure that that infrastructure is sustainable or we will lock in a high-polluting dangerous future.
And for that to happen, the leaders of the world need to step up.
The private sector, of course, is poised to move, and many are doing so.
But a lack of decisive government action is causing uncertainty in the markets and concern about the future of the Paris Agreement.
We can’t let this happen.
Existing technologies are waiting to come online – cleaner fuels, alternative building materials, better batteries and advances in farming and land use.
These and other innovations can have a major role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, so we can hit the Paris targets and inject the great ambition that is so urgently needed.
Governments must also end harmful subsidies for fossil fuels, institute carbon pricing that reflects the true cost of polluting greenhouse [gas] emissions and incentivizes the clean energy transition.
Dear friends,
I have spoken of the emergency we face, the benefits of action and the feasibility of a climate-friendly transformation.
There is another reason to act -- moral duty.
The world’s richest nations are the most responsible for the climate crisis, yet the effects are being felt first and worst by the poorest nations and the most vulnerable peoples and communities.
We already see this injustice in the incessant and increasing cycle of extreme droughts and ever more powerful storms.
Women and girls, in particular, will pay the price – not only because their lives will become harder but because, in times of disaster, women and girls always suffer disproportionally.
Richer nations must therefore not only cut their emissions but do more to ensure that the most vulnerable can develop the necessary resilience to survive the damage these emissions are causing.
It is important to note that, because carbon dioxide is long-lasting in the atmosphere, the climate changes we are already seeing will persist for decades to come.
It is necessary for all nations to adapt, and for the richest ones to assist the most vulnerable.
Dear friends,
This is the message I would like to make clear in addressing the world leaders this month’s in the General Assembly in New York.
I will tell them that climate change is the great challenge of our time.
That, thanks to science, we know its size and nature.
That we have the ingenuity, and the resources and tools to face it.
And that leaders must lead.
We have the moral and economic incentives to act.
What is still missing – still, even after Paris – is the leadership, and the sense of urgency and true commitment to [a] decisive multilateral response.
Negotiations towards implementation guidelines for operationalizing the Paris Agreement ended yesterday in Bangkok with some progress -- but far from enough.
The next key moment is in Poland in December.
I call on leaders to use every opportunity between now and then -- the G7, the G20 gatherings as well as meetings of the General Assembly, World Bank and International Monetary Fund -- to resolve the sticking points.
We cannot allow Katowice to remind us of Copenhagen.
The time has come for our leaders to show they care about the people whose fate they hold in their hands.
We need them to show they care about the future – and even the present.
That is why I am so pleased to have such a strong representation of youth in the audience today.
It is imperative that civil society -- youth, women’s groups, the private sector, communities of faith, scientists and grassroots movements around the world -- call their leaders to account. As I was told myself by my Youth Envoy.
I call -- in particular -- on women’s leadership.
When women are empowered to lead, they are the drivers of solutions.
Nothing less than our future and the fate of humankind depends on how we rise to the climate challenge.
It affects every aspect of the work of the United Nations.
Keeping our planet’s warming to well below 2 degrees is essential for global prosperity, people’s well-being and the security of nations.
That is why, next September, I will convene a Climate Summit to bring climate action to the top of the international agenda.
Today, I am announcing the appointment of Luis Alfonso de Alba, a well-respected leader in the climate community, as my Special Envoy to lead those preparations.
His efforts will complement those of my Special Envoy for Climate Action, Michael Bloomberg, and my Special Advisor Bob Orr, who will help to mobilize private finance and catalyze bottom-up action.
The Summit next year will come exactly one year before countries will have to enhance their national climate pledges under the Paris Agreement.
Only a significantly higher level of ambition will do.
To that end, the Summit will focus on areas that go to the heart of the problem – the sectors that create the most emissions and the areas where building resilience will make the biggest difference.
The Summit will provide an opportunity for leaders and partners to demonstrate real climate action and showcase their ambition.
We will bring together players from the real economy and real politics, including representatives of trillions of dollars of assets, both public and private.
I want to hear about how we are going to stop the increase in emissions by 2020, and dramatically reduce emissions to reach net-zero emissions by mid-century.
We need cities and states to shift from coal to solar and wind -- from brown to green energy.
Our great host city, New York, is taking important steps in this direction -- and working with other municipalities to spur change.
We need increased investments and innovation in energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies across buildings, transport, and industry.
And we need the oil and gas industry to make their business plans compatible with the Paris agreement and the Paris targets.
I want to see a strong expansion in carbon pricing.
I want us to get the global food system right by ensuring that we grow our food without chopping down large tracts of forest.
We need sustainable food supply chains that reduce loss and waste.
And we must halt deforestation and restore degraded lands.
I want to rapidly speed up the trend towards green financing by banks and insurers, and encourage innovation in financial and debt instruments to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable nations such as small island states and bolster their defences against climate change.
And I want to see governments fulfilling their pledge to mobilize 100 billion dollars a year for climate action in support of the developing world.
We need to see the Green Climate Fund become fully operational and fully resourced.
But for all this, we need governments, industry and civil society reading from the same page – with governments front and centre driving the movement for climate action.
I am calling on all leaders to come to next year’s Climate Summit prepared to report not only on what they are doing, but what more they intend to do when they convene in 2020 for the UN climate conference and where commitments will be renewed and surely ambitiously increased.
And it is why I am calling on civil society, and young people in particular, to campaign for climate action.
Let us use the next year for transformational decisions in boardrooms, executive suites and parliaments across the world.
Let us raise our sights, build coalitions and make our leaders listen.
I commit myself, and the entire United Nations, to this effort. We will support all leaders who rise to the challenge I have outlined today.
Dear friends,
There is no more time to waste.
As the ferocity of this summer’s wildfires and heatwaves shows, the world is changing before our eyes.
We are careering towards the edge of the abyss.
It is not too late to shift course, but every day that passes means the world heats up a little more and the cost of our inaction mounts.
Every day we fail to act is a day that we step a little closer towards a fate that none of us wants -- a fate that will resonate through generations in the damage done to humankind and life on earth.
Our fate is in our hands.
The world is counting on all of us to rise to the challenge before it’s too late.
I count on you all.
Thank you.
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Investing in a forgotten solution to climate change: Nature
Here are some things we know: that the climate is changing, that this is largely a result of too much carbon and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and that we continue to emit more carbon into the atmosphere every day.
We also know that, globally, forests and terrestrial soils combined store more than two and half times as much carbon as the atmosphere. And we know that, with some changes in how we manage our landscapes, they could emit less carbon and store much more.
So given all that we do know, here’s one thing I don’t know—why aren’t we investing more in nature’s ability to address climate change?
It’s not for lack of evidence. Research by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and fourteen partner organizations shows that with some changes in land-use practices over the next decade, nature could provide a third of the emissions reductions we need between now and 2030 to keep global temperature rise below 2°C. And these are solutions that are available today, with real possibilities for scaling.
Despite this, it seems that collectively we have forgotten the role that nature can play in mitigating climate change. Natural climate solutions might offer a third of the solution for carbon emissions, but they take up less than 1 percent of the public discussion and just 3 percent of the public funding for emissions reduction. About 70 percent of the countries who have signed the Paris Agreement do reference land-use in their nationally determined contributions (NDCs), but very few include any specific actions or targets.
Cities are banding together to share best practices for adaptation and mitigation and present a united front on climate leadership. Photo: Seoul, Korea. Credits to iStock.
Still, as my colleague Lynn Scarlett reminds us, national commitments are not all that matter—climate change solutions are happening from the ground up. This is one promising signal of the upcoming Global Climate Action Summit. In addition to calling for more ambitious commitments on the national level, this event is shining a spotlight on the subnational actors who are taking action now to help us meet our global climate goals. Even as we work to raise national and global ambition on climate action, states and regions are setting their own ambitious targets. Cities are banding together—through organizations like C40 and the 100 Resilient Cities Network—to share best practices for adaptation and mitigation and present a united front on climate leadership. Business leaders are stepping up, making their own commitments to make their operations more sustainable. And indigenous peoples and local communities of all sizes are making investments in nature, both for their economies and their environment.
Meanwhile, nonprofit organizations, including TNC, are coming together under the Nature4Climate campaign to speak with one voice about the importance of natural climate solutions. These solutions are not just an imperative for climate action—they are also an opportunity. A working forest, when sustainably managed, can be both a carbon sink and a source of jobs. Smarter forestry practices like reduced impact logging for carbon (RIL-C) can maintain timber harvest while preserving more standing trees. And changes in agricultural practices can reduce carbon emissions and enhance the health and carbon content of soils to increase crop yields.
Rancher Jose Palomo stands under the shade trees in his "silvopastoral" pasture at his ranch Los Potrillos in Becanchen, Yucatan. Palomo has adopted "silvopastoral" ranching practices, which increases cattle yields through a mixed grass/shrub/tree ecosystem. Photo Credits: Erich Schlegel
We are seeing the powerful potential for these solutions to come together at the subnational level—and on a large landscape scale. For example, TNC has worked for several years in the East Kalimatan province of Indonesia and in the three states comprising Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, where regional governments have signed Green Growth Compacts with local industry partners that aim to leverage the forestry and agricultural sectors for economic development while reducing deforestation and reducing current land-based emissions.
However, reducing emissions is probably not enough to keep the climate in safe boundaries—we need to also draw more carbon out of the atmosphere. Restoring ecosystems may be our best option for doing so in the near term.
Restoring degraded lands offers another sourcefor economic growth while tackling climate change on the ground. Globally, the nascent restoration economy is estimated to produce at least 9 billion in annual economic activity, with the potential to grow much larger. Consider: current national commitments for reforestation add up 160 million acres—an area the size of South Africa. This could be huge untapped opportunity for the companies that figure out how to deliver on those commitments efficiently.
National commitments are of course vitally important—they represent one of the most important ways to set goals and hold ourselves accountable at the global level. But it’s important not to lose sight of everything happening at the subnational level, especially when it comes to natural climate solutions. The immediate impact we’re seeing from local, lands-based work is crucial—our research also indicates we need to accelerate investment in natural climate solutions in the next ten years to ensure nature’s maximum capacity to reduce emissions and store more carbon in the landscape.
And here is one more thing that we know—if we don’t act soon enough, the results of climate change will likely be catastrophic. Hopefully the Global Climate Action Summit will yield new commitments, new opportunities for on the ground action, and new investments in nature-based solutions—because making those investments today may be our best route to a safer, more resilient tomorrow.
Banner and thumbnail photo credits to Pixabay.com
Abstract: We explore the risk that self-reinforcing feedbacks could push the Earth System toward a planetary threshold that, if crossed, could prevent stabilization of the climate at intermediate temperature rises and cause continued warming on a “Hothouse Earth” pathway even as human emissions are reduced. Crossing the threshold would lead to a much higher global average temperature than any interglacial in the past 1.2 million years and to sea levels significantly higher than at any time in the Holocene.
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Green Hope makes an impact in Suriname - the world’s greenest country
The Republic of Suriname is situated on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America and has the unique distinction of being designated by the World Bank as the most forested country in the world, with almost 93% of its land area being covered by the lush Amazon forests. A Green Hope team, comprising of members from Dubai, Oman and Canada, were invited by the Cabinet of the President of the Republic of Suriname to support the involvement of Surinamese youth in building a roadmap for the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The team was also asked to draw international attention to support the position of Suriname as the most forested country in the world.
Hope’s mission was to support Suriname by creating awareness amongst the local youth by using Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as a transformative tool to educate and empower them so that they could take local actions in mitigating the impacts of climate change and protect their rich natural heritage for future generations.
After months of preparation and coordination, the Green Hope team flew in from Dubai, Oman, and Canada converging on Paramaribo, Suriname’s picturesque capital city on 3rd July. The delegation had the privilege of accompanying His Excellency Mr. Winston G. Lackin, Presidential Advisor - Republic of Suriname and its Ambassador in charge of Environment on the flight from Amsterdam to Suriname and was given a grand reception at Paramaribo airport on arrival.
The Suriname cabinet ministers with Green Hope. Photo Credits: Green Hope
Over the next 12 days, the Green Hope team undertook one of their most impactful journeys of ESD till date through which they reached out to thousands of civil society stakeholders in Suriname. This journey of change began with a high-level breakfast meeting with the ministers of the Suriname cabinet which included H.E. Winston Lackin, Ambassador in Charge of the Environment/Presidential Advisor, the Hon. Jennifer Geerlings-Simons, Speaker of the House, Melvin Bouva, Vice Speaker of the House, H.E. Lillian Ferrier, Minister of Education, Science and Culture & H.E. Lalinie Gopal, Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs to discuss and roll out the engagement activities for the Green Hope delegation.
Thereafter, the Green Hope team in partnership with the Youth Parliament of Suriname conducted an impactful event titled “Youth Awareness Conference for a Sustainable Suriname” which was attended by over 350 youth, 15 to 18 years old, from across schools in the country. The objective was to spread awareness about Suriname’s unique position as the only country in the world with 93% forest cover and the important role of the country’s children and youth in taking care of their environment for future generations.
"Maroon" children planted trees in one of Hope's actions in Suriname. Photo Credits: Green Hope
Over the next two days, Green Hope conducted two more “Environment Academies” each of which was attended by over 300 children in the age group of 8 to 15 years. Green Hope believes in using creative modes of communication to convey the themes of sustainable development and these workshops were titled “Creative Art & Music Workshop for a Sustainable Suriname.” Sustainability is a difficult concept for children to understand and therefore Green Hope uses art, music, dance, drama, and sport to engage and educate young children creatively. The main vehicles of communication at these workshops were art and music through which the participants expressed their solutions and ideas for implementing the 17 sustainable development goals for their country. The outputs were truly amazing and showed the importance of harnessing the passion and creativity of young people in driving change.
Green Hope believes that engaging neglected and marginalized sections of civil society holds the key to the realization of the United Nations mandate of “leave no one behind” and focusses its efforts to reaching out and empowering them. The team visited an orphanage, home to mainly girls some as young as five years. The team conducted an environmental workshop for them, spreading awareness about the impacts of climate change and adopting sustainable lifestyles. The enthusiasm of the children was truly heartening, and they pledged to stop using plastic and keep their surroundings clean and recycle waste thereby vindicating Green Hope’s belief that sustainable development is a “bottom-up” process and the goals can be achieved only if every member of civil society, especially those who are marginalized are engaged.
A workshop with "Maroon" tribe school. Photo Credits: Green Hope
Thereafter, the Green Hope team conducted a similar workshop for marginalized children belonging to the indigenous “Maroon” tribes of the Amazon. The Green Hope team also traveled into the Amazon rainforest and engaged with children of the local tribes, educating them about the importance of not taking their forests for granted and to adopt simple, sustainable concepts of recycling, waste reduction, tree planting and avoid plastic usage. Green Hope members also planted Moringa and Neem trees with Mr. Winston G. Lackin, Presidential Advisor - Republic of Suriname and its Ambassador in charge of Environment and the students of the children.
Climate change has an extraordinary impact on Suriname's vast mangrove ecosystem. Photo Credits: Green Hope
Mangrove conservation and saving endangered sea turtles have been Green Hope’s focus areas for several years and was one of their areas during this trip as well. Suriname has a vast mangrove ecosystem which too is affected by the impacts of climate change and urban pollution, and then Green Hope spent a day at the mangrove rehabilitation project team at Weg Near Zee, led by eminent mangrove conservation expert Professor Sieuwnath Naipal. Green Hope members planted scores of mangroves as a part of the conservation process. In coordination with the “Green Heritage Fund Suriname,” they conducted a beach cleanup in Braamspunt and thereafter engaged with local conservation experts working on sea turtle conservation.
The team also planted a Greenheart tree with the H.E. Lalinie Gopal, Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs and sealed the partnership with Suriname to mitigate climate change.
The Green Hope team also undertook a field trip to a sanctuary managed by Green Heritage Fund in the Amazon rainforest and learned about the inspiration conservation efforts to save endangered species such as sloths and river dolphins.
The Green Hope team concluded its visit by presenting an outcome document to the H.E. Winston Lackin, Ambassador in Charge of the Environment/Presidential Advisor. It also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Youth Parliament to establish a Green Hope chapter in Suriname to implement the outcome document and create an international partnership which would work to conserve Suriname’s rich natural biodiversity.
Climate change is the harshest reality of our times, and it is regrettable that some people still shrug it off as a myth. On the other hand, this visit to Suriname was an eye-opener on how a small nation was combining economic progress with natural conservation efforts to protect its forest cover. Green Hope was indeed privileged that they were chosen as ambassadors to engage the local youth in conveying the importance of protecting their rich biodiversity for generations to come. Green Hope will now work to share Suriname’s conservation efforts globally and urge other nations to pledge to increase their forest cover.
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Accelerating Climate Action for all SDGs
In December 2015, acting under the UNFCCC, 195 nations negotiated the Paris Agreement, committing to do what it takes to keep temperature increases from rising more than 2°C (3.6°F) above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century.
The Paris Agreement, a generation in the making, is the most ambitious global resolution on climate change, and the first time in history that nearly every country agreed to work toward a fossil-fuel-free world.
But that was just the beginning. The Paris Agreement relies upon a ratchet mechanism, in which commitments must be increased every five years. That makes 2018 a critical year for climate action; it marks the midpoint between the ink drying on the Paris Agreement and the next agreed step for raising the bar toward achieving the well below 2C temperature target while striving for 1.5C. It is the year to step up climate action and ambition globally, across all sectors of the economy in support of Paris and thus all the sustainable development goals.
In April 2017, Mission 2020 launched a global campaign, convened by former UN climate chief and lead negotiator for the Paris Agreement, Christiana Figueres. The campaign was designed to inject urgency into efforts to address climate change after experts marked the year 2020 as the critical turning point by which we must bend the curve of carbon emissions.
Climate Change and the Global Goals
The world community has also agreed to meet 17 Global Sustainable Development Goals, by 2030, including ending poverty and hunger, and ensuring universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy.
If we are late to the 2020 milestone, and emissions have not begun a steady decline by then, we will all but eliminate our chance to stay within the agreed range of a 1.5C to 2C temperature rise, beyond which the impacts we see already – record Arctic ice melting, famine-inducing drought in Africa, unprecedented coral-reef bleaching at the Great Barrier Reef – are likely to worsen, impacting everyone, especially the most vulnerable.
Missing the 2020 milestone would also put meeting all the Global Goals at risk.
A rise of 2 degrees risks exacerbating mass migration, hampering progress made against diseases such as malaria, inducing higher levels of poverty and therefore lowering the chance for full education and gender equality. All this shows us that the window of opportunity for urgent action to meet the 2020 climate turning point is now.
This unique opportunity to accelerate climate action to ensure success for all the sustainable development goals will generate a host of co-benefits, including in health, energy, and food security, and jobs - providing a basis for shared prosperity and financial stability for all.
6 milestones by 2020 to meet SDGs by 2030
There is a plan with deliverables that would put the world on track by 2020 to both protect the Paris Agreement in the short term and achieve its goals in the longer term.
We must massively accelerate climate action in the period from now to 2020.
This is a task for every business, investor, city, region and country and we must call them to it with determination and clarity.
The logo we have developed wraps the Global Goal 13 (on climate action) and it’s dark green identifying colour around the 17 goals to represent the fact that all the Global Goals are relying on accelerated climate action.
Accelerating climate action to ensure success for all the sustainable development goals is a vital message, not simply a logo, and it unites the climate and development sectors.
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