You are failing young, we will never forgive you, thunders Greta Thunberg at UN climate summit

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 23: A visibly angry Greta Thunberg berated world leaders as she addressed a UN climate summit on Monday, accusing them of betraying her generation by failing to tackle greenhouse gas emissions and asking “How dare you?” The Swedish teen, who has become the global face of the growing youth movement against climate inaction, began by telling her audience: “My message is that we’ll be watching you,” eliciting laughter.

But it was soon clear that the tone of the message would be very serious.

“This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back at school on the other side of the ocean,” the 16-year-old, who is taking a year off from her studies, said.

“You come to us young people for hope. How dare you?” she thundered.

“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words, yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering, people are dying, entire ecosystems are collapsing.

“We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is the money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!” She added that in her talks with leaders, she had been told that the youth were being heard and the urgency was understood.

“But no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that, because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil, and that I refuse to believe.” Thunberg, who often appears uncomfortable in the limelight and is seen as a reluctant leader, then detailed the various targets that were being missed, heightening the risk of “irreversible chain reactions beyond human control.”

She also took aim at the summit called by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to ask countries to expand their commitments saying: “There will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures here today because these numbers are too uncomfortable, and you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is.” “You are failing us,” she concluded. “But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal.

“The eyes of all future generations, are upon you, And if you choose to fail us. I say, we will never forgive you!”.

Time to talk is over, time to act now: Modi at UN climate summit

By Deepak Arora

NEW YORK, Sept 23: The time for talk is over, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that The time for talk is over. He was speaking at a UN climate Action summit that was marked by growing impatience and exasperation with climate skeptics such as US President Donald Trump who was in the audience and was the unmistakable target of some speakers.

“The time for talking is over and the world needs to act now,” Modi said, and, recounting India’s aspirations and actions in this regard such as increased reliance on renewable energy, he aligned himself with the spirit of the summit called by UN secretary general Antonio Guterres to implement and advance the Paris Accord, and participants that included a mix of political and business leaders and activists.

Other speakers at the summit included French President Macron, New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern, Germany’s Angela Merkel and business leaders such as Bloomberg, who has been an activist on environment and his impatience with climate deniers was on one full display in the opening minutes of his speech.

But the star of the summit turned out to be the young Thunberg, whose impassioned plea for urgent action received the most applause.

Leaders from government, business, and civil society joined today at the United Nations Secretary-General’s Climate Action Summit in New York to announce potentially far-reaching ambitious solutions in nine areas: a global transition to renewable energy; sustainable and resilient infrastructures and cities; sustainable agriculture and management of forests and oceans; resilience and adaptation to climate impacts; and alignment of public and private finance with a net zero economy.

The Summit is expected to offer a turning point from inertia into momentum, action, and global impact.

The UN estimates that the world would need to increase its efforts between three- and five-fold to contain climate change to the levels dictated by science – a 1.5°C rise at most – and avoid escalating climate damage already taking place around the world.
The Paris Agreement provides an open-door framework for countries to continuously ratchet up their positive actions, and today’s Summit demonstrates how governments, businesses, and civilians around the world are rising to the challenge.

The Summit is designed to showcase government, business, and civil society efforts to increase their commitments under the Paris Agreement and work toward reducing emissions to essentially zero by mid-century. Many of the more than 70 key announcements showcase the concrete ways in which countries can better adapt to climate change and cut emissions while getting the necessary technical and financial support many of them need.

The Summit participants recognize that to limit climate change to 1.5°C, action needs to start now.

Many countries used the Summit to demonstrate next steps on how by 2020 they will update their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) with the aim to collectively reduce emissions by at least 45 percent by 2030 and prepare national strategies to achieve carbon neutrality by mid-century.

Prime Minister Modi who was one of the early speakers at the Summit underlined that global actions to tackle climate change are not enough. He called for a comprehensive approach which places emphasis on education, values, lifestyle and developmental philosophy. He called for mass movement to bring about behavioural change.

He said that India was participating at the Summit not with a speech but with a practical approach and roadmap.

Echoing Mahatma’s Gandhi’s emphasis on action, Prime Minister Modi said that “an ounce of practice is worth more than a ton of preaching”.

He said that India would be looking at a renewable energy target in excess of 400 GW by 2030, implement programs to boost electric mobility, increase the proportion of the biofuel blending in petrol and diesel and focus on the use of Compressed bio gas.

Prime Minister also launched Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure to assist countries with making their infrastructure disaster resilient. He invited all member states to join the coalition.

Under the “Industry Transition Track”, that India and Sweden co-lead with other partners as part of the Climate Action Summit, PM announced the launch of the “Leadership Group”, which will provide a platform for governments and the private sector with opportunities for cooperation in the area of technology innovation and develop low carbon pathways for industry.

Emphasizing climate action, Prime Minister said that as a token gesture, India is also getting the UN greener by installing rooftop solar panels at a cost of US$ 1 million. The formal inauguration will take place at the commemorative event on the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi which will be hosted by Prime Minister Modi on 24th Sept 2019.

UN climate summit aims to speed up transition to cleaner, greener future

By Deepak Arora

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 17: New measures to speed up the transition to clean energy and green economies are among the initiatives to be unveiled during the UN Climate Change Summit next week.

Heads of State, representatives from the private sector, and the teenage activist Greta Thunberg are expected in New York to tackle what the UN considers the defining issue of our time.

Amina J. Mohammed, the UN Deputy Secretary-General, outlined some of the expectations during a press conference on Tuesday.

“The Summit will present practical and new measures to, one: speed up the transition from coal to clean energy and to cut the pollution that is harming our health,” she said, and secondly, “protect nature but also unlock the potential of nature to deliver on climate solutions”.

Thirdly, she said it would “create cleaner, greener ways to work and move; speed up transition in key sectors from grey to green economies, safeguard people from the impacts of climate change already being felt right now, and help make sure that we leave no one behind.”

The Climate Summit opens on Monday and is among five major UN events looking at issues such as health and supporting small island developing states.

It will be preceded by a Youth Climate Summit on Saturday, where participants from across the globe will showcase their solutions on how to combat the crisis.

Luis Alfonso de Alba, the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the 2019 Climate Summit, said 100 young people will be travelling on carbon neutral, or “green”, tickets.

“We provided support to 100 youth from different countries and they will be joined by a much bigger number: our expectation is more than 700 on the Saturday, and we will try to accommodate as many as possible in the General Assembly hall on Monday,” he said.

Marie-Claire Graf from Switzerland is among the lucky advocates to receive a green ticket.

“There is really no time to wait because I guess what is the biggest problem that we still think climate change is something which maybe happen in some years, but we are in a huge crisis which is existential…Take young people seriously and include them in decision-making bodies, so we don’t only be like somewhere on the agenda but we want to be seated at the table when decisions are made,” she said in Geneva.

Humanitarian cost of climate change: 200 million people in need, US $20 billion to respond

By Deepak Arora

NEW YORK, Sept 19: A new report by the world’s largest humanitarian network warns that the number of people needing humanitarian assistance every year as a result of climate-related disasters could double by 2050.

The Cost of Doing Nothing – published today by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) – estimates that the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance as a result of storms, droughts and floods could climb beyond 200 million annually – compared to an estimated 108 million today.

It further suggests that this rising human toll would come with a huge financial price tag, with climate-related humanitarian costs ballooning to US$20 billion per year by 2030, in the most pessimistic scenario.

Speaking in New York, in the run-up to the UN Climate Action Summit, IFRC President Francesco Rocca said:

“These findings confirm the impact that climate change is having, and will continue to have, on some of the world’s most vulnerable people. It also demonstrates the strain that increasing climate-related disasters could place on aid agencies and donors.”

“The report shows the clear and frightening cost of doing nothing. But it also shows there is a chance to do something. But now is the time to take urgent action. By investing in climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction, including through efforts to improve early warning and anticipatory humanitarian action, the world can avoid a future marked by escalating suffering and ballooning humanitarian response costs,” said Rocca.

The Cost of Doing Nothing builds on the work and methodology of the World Bank’s Shock Waves report, and draws on data from the UN, the EM-DAT International Disaster Database as well as IFRC’s own disaster statistics. The report shows that we are facing a stark choice. No action and costs are likely to escalate. Take determined and ambitious action now that prioritizes inclusive, climate-smart development and the number of people in need of international humanitarian assistance annually could in fact fall to as low as 68 million by 2030, and even drop further to 10 million by 2050 – a decrease of 90 per cent compared to today.

Julie Arrighi, an advisor at the Red Cross and Red Crescent Climate Centre, and one of the main contributors to the report, said:

“In this report, we present some of the potential consequences should the global community fail to step up ambition to address the rising risks in a changing climate. It also shows some of the potential positive outcomes if indeed the global community takes action now to build resilience, adapt and address the current climate crisis

“We hope that this report helps build momentum during the upcoming Climate Action Summit and beyond to increase investment in inclusive, climate-smart development – including reduced emissions, but especially renewed efforts to adapt to the rising risks,” Ms Arrighi said.