UN SECRETARY-GENERAL WELCOMES WORLD LEADERS’ CLIMATE CHANGE STATEMENTS
The global economy is worth about US $80 trillion – with that in mind, try to contextualize the following:
UN Secretary-General António Guterres is encouraged by statements made by the leaders of the world’s two largest economies, China and the United States, concerning their commitments to take climate change action.
China’s Xi Jinping has promised not to build any new coal-fired power stations in countries where it is invested, and this indicates a change in policy with respect to the country’s “Belt and Road” infrastructure initiative which had planned new coal-fired plants worth $160 billion globally between 2014 and 2020. President Xi will also increase financial support for environmentally safe energy projects in other developing countries.
However, China has a lot to do in its own country, where coal is the main energy source. China used more coal than the rest of the world put together in 2020, according to research group Ember and, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, coal had made up 58% of China’s energy needs.
Meanwhile, America’s President Biden has announced that the US will increase funding to help developing nations address the climate crisis. This will increase the US’s contribution to global climate financing by $5.7 billion per year to a total of US$11.4 billion annually This is the second time the US has doubled its contribution to world climate change since April 2021.
The leaders’ statements were made at a meeting of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, 21 September. Secretary-General António Guterres had, earlier that day, warned that humanity was on track for a “hellscape” of increased temperatures rise that would bring “catastrophe.” He appealed to world leaders to show solidarity and act on the crisis. He had asked nations to invest in renewable energy and to tax waste from coal use “instead of people’s income.”
More than ten years ago, First World leaders agreed to contribute $100 billion a year to address the climate effects on Global South countries, which experience the most direct impacts of climate heating. This target was missed. However, even with Biden’s new commitment, other developed countries contribute more to the effort – the European Union contributes $29 billion a year. “Accelerating the global phase-out of coal is the single most important step to keep the 1.5-degree goal of the Paris Agreement within reach.” according to Guterres. The 1.5-degree target is a limitation put on the global temperature increase in this century to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels while pursuing the means to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees.
How nations’ leaderships scrabble to pay lip service…
The general assembly is the last major international event before world leaders meet at the G20 – an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union. It works to address major issues related to the global economy – in Rome in October, followed immediately by the UN climate conference in Scotland. “We are weeks away from the UN climate conference in Glasgow, but seemingly light-years away from reaching our targets,” Guterres said in his initial address. “We must get serious and we must act fast”.
Climate money is truly a tokenist economy…
As a global community, our embrace of ignorant surrender, our aportionment of environmental responsibility to our chosen leadership, and their tokenist delivery in response, has disempowered us, robbed us of the force to mitigate…
THAT’S where the government has gotten you, my fellow citizens… the only way we can maximize survival and save as much of our biosphere as we can is to do it ourselves. Because then we’ll know it’s been done and done the best way it was possible to do…