"OXFORD, ENGLAND -- Humanity has only two years left "to save the world" by making dramatic changes in the way it spews heat-trapping emissions and it has even less time to act to get the finances behind such a massive shift, the head of the United Nations climate agency said.
With governments of the world facing a 2025 deadline for new and stronger plans to curb carbon pollution, nearly half of the world's populations voting in elections this year, and crucial global finance meetings later this month in Washington, United Nations executive climate secretary Simon Stiell said Wednesday he knows his warning may sound melodramatic. But he said action over the next two years is "essential."
"We still have a chance to make greenhouse gas emissions tumble, with a new generation of national climate plans. But we need these stronger plans, now," Stiell said in a speech at the Chatham House think tank in London. He suggested that climate action is not just for powerful people to address -- in a not-so-veiled reference to the electoral calendar this year.
"Who exactly has two years to save the world? The answer is every person on this planet," Stiell said. "More and more people want climate action right across societies and political spectrums, in large part because they are feeling the impacts of the climate crisis in their everyday lives and their household budgets."
Crop-destroying droughts have increased the need for bolder action to curb emissions and help farmers adapt which could boost food security and lessen hunger, he said. "Cutting fossil fuel pollution will mean better health and huge savings for governments and households alike," Stiell said.
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Levels of carbon dioxide and methane in the air last year hit all-time highs, according to United States government calculations, while scientists calculate that the world's carbon dioxide emissions jumped 1.1%. Last year was the hottest year on record by far, global temperature monitoring groups concluded.
If emissions of carbon dioxide and methane from burning of coal, oil and natural gas continue to rise or don't start a sharp decline, Stiell said it "will further entrench the gross inequalities between the world's richest and poorest countries and communities" that are being worsened by climate change.
And behind it all is money.
Stiell's speech comes just ahead of meetings of The World Bank and other big multinational development institutions, where poorer nations, led by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley and Kenyan President William Ruto, are pushing for major reforms in the systems that loan money to poor nations, especially those hit by climate-related disasters.
In conjunction with that push, Stiell called for "a quantum leap this year in climate finance." He called for debt relief for the countries that need it the most, saying they are spending $400 billion on debt financing instead of preparing for and preventing future climate change.
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Climate Action -- Stale Date is 2026
No new fossil gas connections, TORONTO WE CAN DO THIS!
All oil & gas subsidies stop now.
Open the provincial wholesale electricity markets to firmed wind and solar power. Design the markets to SUPPORT renewable power.
2026 stop date for NEW combustion cars and furnaces. (we can keep repairing the OLD gassers)
Tax rebates for electric cars and heat pumps.
Upgraded transmission WITHOUT red tape (High Voltage DC transmission can be underground). And talking of red tape, remove it for wind and solar power.
End support for the nonsense solutions proposed by the fossil fuel industry: carbon capture, hydrogen as a FUEL, and NEW nuclear power (nuclear can't come online for 1.5 decades --- FAR too late --- this is EXACTLY what the fossil industry wants: delay).
Clean energy is cheaper than fossil fuel, with the added health benefit of clean air.
https://lnkd.in/gM8JiBJk
UN climate chief presses for faster action, says humans have 2 years left 'to save the world'
ctvnews.ca