By Janet Ekstract
UNITED NATIONS (TURKISH JOURNAL)- As a precursor to the COP26 climate conference in November, Milan has been the setting for the Youth4Climate meeting where 400 young people are gathered representing their response to the climate crisis. Among them, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg who excoriated politicians at the climate meeting, labeling their response to climate change as “30 years of blah, blah, blah.” Thunberg who is scheduled to meet Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, added her additional take on what has been done so far: “Build back better, blah, blah blah. Green economy, blah, blah blah. Net-zero by 2050, blah, blah, blah. Climate-neutral, blah, blah, blah This is all we hear from our so-called leaders Words, words that sound great but that so far has led to no action.” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres encouraged youth climate leaders to continue speaking out as he said, “for a breakthrough in building resilience and ensuring that at least 50 percent of climate support is for adaptation to protect lives and livelihoods.” Guterres also highlighted the reasons the voice of youth for climate change is so crucial now, including making sure developed nations end up delivering on their decades-old promise to provide $100 billion annually in climate finance to developing countries.
Meanwhile, UN Climate Chief Patricia Espinosa said that achieving success at the upcoming COP26 climate conference in Glasgow “will certainly not be easy,” and added that it’s an “absolute necessity” to be able to emerge from the youth climate summit with a “message of hope.” The upcoming COP26 is expected to be a key factor in keeping goals originally set out in the Paris Agreement. While ministers claim some progress is being made on a range of issues, the largest issue front and center is one of money. Wealthy nations are still $20 billion short of the committed $100 billion a year to help developing nations with climate change. The head of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Achim Steiner commented: “Isn’t it ridiculous that in the midst of a trillion dollar emergency response economy that we’re seeing right now, we are haggling over a $20 billion price tag to essentially unleash hundreds of billions of dollars, if not trillions of dollars of developing country investments.” Steiner told BBC News that not being able to find the means to finance the climate crisis is “just not acceptable.”
To that end, a new research report from the Energy Transitions Commission – a group consisting of leaders from the energy industry, finance and climate advocacy stated that the 1.5C temperature threshold can be maintained at a rather low cost over the next decade. The report outlines six steps that can be taken which includes making major and rapid cuts in methane emissions. The second step would be decarbonizing the power sector and speeding up the phase out of coal with an immediate ban on the construction of new coal fired plants combined with a phase out of existing sources. The third step includes accelerating the electrification of road transport while the fourth step would be accelerating supply decarbonization in buildings, heavy industry and transport. This would include commitments by leading companies and countries in steel, cement, shipping and aviation to deliver an additional one billion tons of emissions reductions annually. In addition, reinvigorating energy and resource efficiency while putting a stop to deforestation and beginning reforestation which must be a priority for climate finance. The Chair of the Energy Transitions Commission Adair Turner said: “The 1.5C threshold is absolutely technologically possible at costs which the global economy could easily absorb.” He added: “We broadly know the categories of what is possible. We have provided, we think, a robust quantification of what’s possible. And there are specific initiatives which could be taken in addition to country’s carbon cutting plans, which would get us there. And we need them because we’re running out of time.”
