Post by bonnasuttadhar225588 on Feb 15, 2024 0:37:41 GMT -8
Simon Stiell says climate action is good business, and the transition to fighting climate change more effectively needs renewed institutions and new political will. Rich countries, like poorer ones, can reap huge economic, social and environmental gains by rapidly scaling up renewable energy and other climate action, the new UN climate chief said Wednesday at the COP27 climate talks in Egypt . “It's good business for them to accept the transition,” which offers everything from cheaper energy to less pollution, Simon Stiell said in an interview. “It is a healthier and richer future.” The problem with making that change is that “there is a lot of interest in knowing where we are. That is the challenge.” Stiell, who grew up in the Caribbean island nation of Grenada, says his job is to become the world's "chief accountability officer," in charge of ensuring that global plans and commitments to address climate change are carried out by governments, companies and others. It's a huge job, particularly with the 2030 deadline looming to cut global emissions by nearly half, or face spiraling warming-related losses even as fossil fuel emissions continue to rise. Climate action is good business “Today a new era begins. We started doing things differently,” he said as UN climate talks got underway in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh this week.
On the formal, or in some cases informal, agendas in Egypt are efforts to push for a number of fundamental changes needed to address climate change, including a rethinking of global financial systems Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Email List to channel money where it is needed most. Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley proposed a revamp of post-World War II international financial systems, called the 'Bridgetown Agenda', designed to facilitate access to finance for countries to develop cleanly and fight against climate threats. The proposal has won some key early endorsements, including from French President Emmanuel Macron. “We need all of our institutions to be fit for purpose,” Stiell said, although he said “we have a long way to go” to achieve this. Despite resistance from some rich nations, also on the COP27 agenda is a push to create a new “loss and damage” financing mechanism to help poorer countries that have done little to tackle climate change.
officials, activists and some national leaders have said an agreement is crucial to the success of the summit. How and why is climate action good business? Stiell said his plan to get governments to nearly halve emissions by 2030 and find large amounts of new financing for clean energy and adaptation to climate threats is to divide the work into what needs to be done in each of the eight years remaining. “You can get lost in the weeds, and the weeds don't provide the clarity and direction that's needed,” he said. In decades of COP meetings “so far, the process has been very incremental,” Stiell noted. “This COP signals a change of direction,” and companies and countries that fail to implement their commitments are increasingly likely to be called out. Since it began on Sunday, the summit in Egypt has seen some promising signs, from securing a place for loss and damage financing on the agenda, to more than 100 country leaders, almost without exception, calling for faster climate action. Plans to tighten rules around net-zero emissions pledges by companies, to ensure companies actually reduce their own emissions substantially first rather than relying heavily on carbon offsets elsewhere, too They have received applause. Stiell said making real progress toward climate goals will require scaling up what's already working, finding ways to drag up laggards, providing a "huge" boost in climate financing and increasing political will to make climate action a priority.