Hundreds of government and business leaders are living in New York this week, living in the fight against climate change. The US government is moving in other directions. The temperature continues to rise. More extreme weather is spreading all over the world. Amidst the fractures and despair, leaders emphasize progress and hope.
More than 110 world leaders plan to pull away from climate change coal, oil and natural gas, designed to bolster what the country needs at the Special UN Climate Summit on Wednesday. Dozens of business leaders are taking part in city networking at various meetings aimed at greener and cleaner energy.
“We’re going to turn it on. Ultimately, we either have a livable planet or not,” says Helen Clarkson, CEO of Climate Group, to launch New York City’s Climate Week and its over 1,000 events. “It’s a tough struggle, but we know we don’t have options. It’s up to us to protect what we love.”
As the week begins and leaders talk about stronger national plans and reduced fossil fuel emissions, Climate Action Tracker, a group of independent scientists who track pledges to combat climate change, announced that the host country (US) has the largest backslide in history.
“This is the most aggressive, comprehensive and consequential climate policy rollback that cats have ever analyzed,” says Niklas Hoene, scientist at the New Climate Institute, which helps trackers run.
In most other parts of the world, progress is
However, non-US leaders in politics and business emphasized how much cleaner renewable energy they switched to, like solar and wind, because they were primarily cheap.
“The economic incident is clear,” European Commission Chairman Ursula von der Leyen told the global renewable energy summit. She said 90% of new renewable projects generate electricity cheaper than fossil fuels, and solar energy is now 41% cheaper than the lowest-cost fossil alternatives. “Yeah, the momentum is real.”
Last year, the world invested $2 trillion in renewable energy. That’s twice as much as fossil fuels that emit heat-confined gas, several leaders said.
Just a decade ago, when world leaders adopted the Paris climate agreement, the planet was heading towards 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) beyond the pre-industrial era. UN Climate Director Simon Stiel said it was on track at 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit). But that’s not close to Paris’s goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), Steele said.
“We’re moving forward, so progress is taking place,” Stiel said. He said the unanimous consensus process for international negotiations is “difficult, but it’s being offered.”
Some are not bullish
But that’s not enough and too late, said Ralph Rebenbanu, Vanuatu’s Minister of Climate Change. His country and other small island nations and vulnerable states are planning to seek follow-up to the International Court of Justice ruling earlier this year that all countries must act on climate change, in line with the UN General Assembly (not unanimously, but majority rule). He said Vanuatu’s resolution will not be proposed until after climate negotiations in Brazil in November.
Places such as Antigua and Barbuda are “behind siege due to the climate crisis we didn’t create,” Prime Minister Gaston Brown said of his country, which has been hit by four Category 4 and five hurricanes in a decade. “Any degree of warming is a bill, and literally the demand sent to a small island we can’t afford to pay.”
All countries around the world are set to develop new five-year plans to curb carbon emissions by February, leading to negotiations in Brazil. However, only 47 out of 195 countries (the person responsible for less than a quarter of global emissions) do so. UN officials said that it should be submitted by the end of this month, so experts can calculate how the world is doing in its emission reduction efforts.
China, the world’s largest emitter, and another top polluter, the European Union, are set to release plans or rough sketches for the week. Wednesday’s UN session is designed to kajol countries to do more.
Australian billionaire Andrew Forest tried to support business and world leaders on Monday. “Despair is not leadership,” Forest said. “Fear has never been built up anything. We are here today to guide you to your example.”
Borenstein writes for the Associated Press.
