Climate Change: An unstoppable movement takes hold

By António Guterres
Special to The Nation

 

Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General. ©UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

 

On the eve of the September UN Climate Action Summit, young women and men around the world mobilised by the millions and told global leaders, “You are failing us.” They are right.

 

Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General, shakes hands with Greta Thunberg, teenage climate change activist, during UN General Assembly last week.

 

 

Global emissions are increasing. Temperatures are rising. The consequences for oceans, forests, weather patterns, biodiversity, food production, water, jobs and, ultimately, lives, are already dire – and set to get much worse.

 

The science is undeniable. But in many places, people don’t need a chart or graph to understand the climate crisis. They can simply look out the window.

 

Climate chaos is playing out in real time from California to the Caribbean, and from Africa to the Arctic and beyond. Those who contributed least to the problem are suffering the most.

 

I have seen it with my own eyes from cyclone-battered Mozambique to the hurricane-devastated Bahamas to the rising seas of the South Pacific.

 

I called the Climate Action Summit to serve as a springboard to set us on the right path ahead of crucial 2020 deadlines established by the Paris Agreement on climate change. And many leaders – from many countries and sectors – stepped up.

 

A broad coalition – not just governments and youth, but businesses, cities, investors and civil society – came together to move in the direction our world so desperately needs to avert climate catastrophe.

 

More than 70 countries committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, even if major emitters have not yet done so. More than 100 cities did the same, including several of the world’s largest.

 

At least 70 countries announced their intention to boost their national plans under the Paris agreement by 2020.

 

Small Island States together committed to achieve carbon neutrality and to move to 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030.

 

Countries from Pakistan to Guatemala, Colombia to Nigeria, New Zealand to Barbados vowed to plant more than 11 billion trees.

 

More than 100 leaders in the private sector committed to accelerating their move into the green economy.

 

A group of the world’s largest asset-owners – responsible for directing more than $2 trillion – pledged to move to carbon-neutral investment portfolios by 2050.

 

This is in addition to a recent call by asset managers representing nearly half the world’s invested capital – some $34 trillion – for global leaders to put a meaningful price on carbon and phase out fossil-fuel subsidies and thermal coal power worldwide.

 

The International Development Finance Club pledged to mobilise $1 trillion in clean energy funding by 2025 in 20 least developed countries.

 

One-third of the global banking sector signed up to align their businesses with the Paris agreement objectives and Sustainable Development Goals.

 

The summit also showcased ways in which cities and global industries like shipping can achieve major reductions in emissions. Initiatives to protect forests and safeguard water supplies were

also highlighted.

 

These steps are all important – but they are not sufficient.

 

From the beginning, the summit was designed to jolt the world and accelerate action on a wider scale. It also served as a global stage for hard truths and to shine a light on those who are leading and those who are not. Deniers or major emitters have nowhere to hide.

 

I will continue to encourage them to do much more at home and drive green economic solutions around the world.

 

Our planet needs action on a truly planetary scale. That cannot be achieved overnight, and it cannot happen without the full engagement of those contributing most to the crisis.

 

If our world is to avoid the climate cliff, far more is needed to heed the call of science and cut greenhouse emissions by 45 per cent by 2030; reach carbon neutrality by 2050; and limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees by the end of the century. That’s how we can secure the future of our world.

 

Too many countries still seem addicted to coal – even though cheaper, greener options are available already. We need much more progress on carbon pricing, ensuring no new coal plants by 2020, and ending trillions of dollars in giveaways of hard-earned taxpayers’ money to a dying fossil-fuel industry to boost hurricanes, spread tropical diseases, and heighten conflict.

 

At the same time, developed countries must fulfil their commitment to provide $100 billion a year from public and private sources by 2020 for mitigation and adaptation in developing countries.

 

And I will make sure that the commitments that countries, the private sector and local authorities have made are accounted for – starting in December at the UN Climate conference in Santiago, Chile. The UN is united in support of realizing these initiatives.

 

Climate change is the defining issue of our time.

 

Science tells us that on our current path, we face at least 3 degrees Celsius of global heating by the end of the century. I will not be there, but my granddaughters will.

 

I refuse to be an accomplice in the destruction of their one and only home.

 

Young people, the UN – and a growing number of leaders from business, finance, government and civil society – in short, many of us – are mobilising and acting.

 

But we need many others to take climate action if we are to succeed.

 

We have a long way to go. But the movement has begun. 

 

António Guterres is Secretary-General of the United Nations.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/opinion/30377080

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-10-05

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The science is undeniable but people choose, for whatever reason, to ignore it and the consequences.

Our kids will have a <deleted>ty life and our grandkids even <deleted>tier.

Just an excuse for more taxes.

The plastic and litter is an issue we can deal with

The science behind the warming and cooling of the planet is sketchy at best, based on a few hundred years of data in a world that is over 4 billion years old

Still waiting for her to declare herself a vegetarian lesbian ????

3 minutes ago, Sticky Wicket said:

Just an excuse for more taxes.

The plastic and litter is an issue we can deal with

The science behind the warming and cooling of the planet is sketchy at best, based on a few hundred years of data in a world that is over 4 billion years old

The world is still evolving and at the moment it is evolving into a rubbish dump we can decide wether to evolve the world we live in into something more pleasant than a rubbish dumpI also don't give a rats about the climate debate climate on this rock was changing long before we evolved into rubbish making organisms living in our own excreta.  

8 minutes ago, Sticky Wicket said:

Just an excuse for more taxes.

The plastic and litter is an issue we can deal with

The science behind the warming and cooling of the planet is sketchy at best, based on a few hundred years of data in a world that is over 4 billion years old

I've core samples can provide data going back thousands of years. Those from East Antarctica have provided climate info from up to 800,000 years ago.

1 minute ago, FarFlungFalang said:

The world is still evolving and at the moment it is evolving into a rubbish dump we can decide wether to evolve the world we live in into something more pleasant than a rubbish dumpI also don't give a rats about the climate debate climate on this rock was changing long before we evolved into rubbish making organisms living in our own excreta.  

Yeh I completely agree.

The main issue should be to clean the world up first, both land and sea

 

 

Have the screws been put of China yet? Check out any global emmissions map. They are the largest polluters on the planet. Then comes Europe, the US, India and Russia. These are the countries / continents that are most able to change their emmissions levels. No need to pick on pooer countries that have less ability to do so.

3 minutes ago, edwinchester said:

I've core samples can provide data going back thousands of years. Those from East Antarctica have provided climate info from up to 800,000 years ago.

I've seen that but it's still sketchy data in the grand scale of things.

Humans are great problem solvers and I believe if there are issues then we will find a solution.

Anytime taxes are govts get involved I tend to air on the side of caution.

Let's clean the place first and educate the kids of the future in that regard

It's more tangible and easier to see results.

It's all about tax!

 

 

24 minutes ago, Sticky Wicket said:

The main issue should be to clean the world up first, both land and sea

Air, too. We need to stop burning fossil fuels as soon as possible.

53 minutes ago, edwinchester said:

The science is undeniable but people choose, for whatever reason, to ignore it and the consequences.

Our kids will have a <deleted>ty life and our grandkids even <deleted>tier.

this is already inevitable looking at islamic immigration and birth rates

48 minutes ago, DavisH said:

Have the screws been put of China yet? Check out any global emmissions map. They are the largest polluters on the planet. Then comes Europe, the US, India and Russia. These are the countries / continents that are most able to change their emmissions levels. No need to pick on pooer countries that have less ability to do so.

China is also the country developing and investing the most in green energy alternatives. They are the world factory. Developed country are indirectly relocating pollution to China. If they were to cut all emission you could not even type this post. 

Edited October 5, 20196 yr by Tayaout

50 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

Still waiting for her to declare herself a vegetarian lesbian ????

amputee

1 hour ago, rooster59 said:

I have seen it with my own eyes

right , must be true  then

25 minutes ago, quandow said:

Air, too. We need to stop burning fossil fuels as soon as possible.

Righto... give me your car keys.

 

Now!

Students environmental ACTIVISTS in Thailand are nothing more than showboating ,me too's...how many of them have stopped using plastic from street food vendors....ZERO

Edited October 5, 20196 yr by mok199

5 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

Righto... give me your car keys.

 

Now!

Take next doors first.

Recommended reading. And watch the YouTube videos.

 

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/global-warming-fraud-exposed-pictures

 

Human made climate change is rubbish. We have enough environmental problems to deal with without going Don Quixote about CO2. Where is the tax-money collected for environmental purposes in cleaning up Fukushima? Where is the thorough research about long term effect of micro-plastics in the environment?

 

Instead they use a child as their shield because any critique will be invalidated for "attacking a vulnerable child". How about the people that uses the child like this? Her parents should be put in prison for what they have done to her.

Quote

The science is undeniable. But in many places, people don’t need a chart or graph to understand the climate crisis. They can simply look out the window.

Lucky the youth understand the Science and of course it will effect them the most.
The older folks here don't give a coz it probably won't affect them lol.

Just coz Trump doesn't believe in doesn't mean we have to follow suit the guy is a dork.
 

other than say cracking this rock in 2 there is nothing humans can do to damage the earth permanently. anything we do over time will return to dust. weather it be thousands, millions, or billions of years....the earth will shrug us off like a wet dream.

 

it is us that need saving not the earth. 

5 minutes ago, RobbyXNorway said:

Recommended reading. And watch the YouTube videos.

 

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/global-warming-fraud-exposed-pictures

 

Human made climate change is rubbish. We have enough environmental problems to deal with without going Don Quixote about CO2. Where is the tax-money collected for environmental purposes in cleaning up Fukushima? Where is the thorough research about long term effect of micro-plastics in the environment?

 

Instead they use a child as their shield because any critique will be invalidated for "attacking a vulnerable child". How about the people that uses the child like this? Her parents should be put in prison for what they have done to her.

Sorry is that your Blog?  Can't see anything for Ads lol.

We need to draw up a list of which countries will not be allowed cars in any way.

Once those nations are no longer allowed to own cars their cars can be transported on solar powered ferries and given to people in countries where the politicians have produced three rainforests worth of paper detailing their intended plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Edited October 5, 20196 yr by overherebc

2 minutes ago, sillyfool said:

other than say cracking this rock in 2 there is nothing humans can do to damage the earth permanently. anything we do over time will return to dust. weather it be thousands, millions, or billions of years....the earth will shrug us off like a wet dream.

 

it is us that need saving not the earth. 

And saving us has gone for a ball of chalk already.

1 hour ago, edwinchester said:

The science is undeniable but people choose, for whatever reason, to ignore it and the consequences.

Our kids will have a <deleted>ty life and our grandkids even <deleted>tier.

Five hundred scientists send letter to UN saying “There is no climate crisis”

https://www.thepostmillennial.com/five-hundred-scientists-send-letter-to-un-saying-there-is-no-climate-change-crisis/

 

7 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

 

Five hundred scientists send letter to UN saying “There is no climate crisis”

https://www.thepostmillennial.com/five-hundred-scientists-send-letter-to-un-saying-there-is-no-climate-change-crisis/

 

https://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/

 

The vast majority would disagree with that 500.

1 hour ago, edwinchester said:

The science is undeniable but people choose, for whatever reason, to ignore it and the consequences.

Our kids will have a <deleted>ty life and our grandkids even <deleted>tier.

Science can always be deniable. It wasn't that long ago you got burnt at the stake for saying the world was round. The best scientist in the world proved it was flat.

What is undeniable is that the climate is changing. It is easy to create a scientific theory to support that - but it doesn't mean it is right.

if the science was undeniable then we would have 100% of all the worlds scientists supporting it. We don't have that.

11 minutes ago, edwinchester said:

https://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/

 

The vast majority would disagree with that 500.

there was a time galileo suggested the current consensus

of earth being the center as drivel.

science isnt a democracy where the most votes wins,

or at least shouldnt be.

there is also proof that the 'consensus'

of (97 scientists approve TM) is yet another lie

Edited October 5, 20196 yr by brokenbone

1 hour ago, edwinchester said:

I've core samples can provide data going back thousands of years. Those from East Antarctica have provided climate info from up to 800,000 years ago.

Which is insignificant on a planetary time scale. What was the CO2 ppm during the Cretaceous Period?

1 hour ago, edwinchester said:

I've core samples can provide data going back thousands of years. Those from East Antarctica have provided climate info from up to 800,000 years ago.

its called ice core, and they go way back further then 800.000 years, showing that co2 is not a cause but rather an effect of temperature fluctuations.

the ipcc however, only uses the past 50 years as material for statistics to cloak temperature changes throughout history

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8455KEDitpU&feature=youtu.be

 

Edited October 5, 20196 yr by brokenbone