bonsoir Madame Monsieur good evening
ladies and gentlemen this month we
learned a lot about our beautiful
beautiful planet this month the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change published a special report it was
based on 6,000 scientific studies they
responded to 42,000 comments one by one
the policy summary was approved by
governments line by line
they’d been asked in 2015 to answer the
question what would the world look like
if global warming reached 1.5 degrees
centigrade above pre-industrial levels
that’s 1850 to 1900 they were asked to
describe a world at two degrees
centigrade and they were asked to
describe the pathways we could take to
limit our global warming to 1.5 to not
go beyond 1.5 now what temperature of
global warming are we at right now the
answer is one degree where are we headed
the answer is by the end of the century
if we do nothing 3 at least and we’re
already seeing glimpses of what the
future will hold
hurricanes forest fires in the Arctic
Circle droughts in major cities like
Cape Town and floods these are just a
select few pictures from this year alone
in that context the IPCC report was
sobering reading the difference that
half a degree makes is very big at 1.5
degrees centigrade of global warming we
may have some coral reefs left to be
able to regenerate at 2 degrees we
virtually wiped it out at 1.5 degrees
6% of insects
we’ll lose half their natural habitat at
two degrees that is three times as bad
at one degree centigrade every hundred
years we would see an Arctic summer
without sea ice at two degrees that will
happen every ten years and at two
degrees about 420 million people more
will see record temperatures on a
regular basis now on a positive note the
authors of this report who are drawn
from all over the world said that we
still have an opportunity to reach
carbon neutrality by 2050 they described
four different pathways but they said it
will take a fundamental change in our
systems it will take change of the type
that we have not seen in human history
in terms of scale and speed we are now
on a sprint to 2020 in 2020 what will
happen it’s the fifth anniversary of the
Paris Accord and in 2020 every country
is asked to come back together and
present a more ambitious national plan
the sum of those plans needs to put us
back on track so we’re facing climate
breakdown on one hand which is frankly
terrifying we’re facing a global sprint
on the other hand which is utterly
daunting and so it’s worth using the
moment of this report to ask ourselves
how do we sprint to 2020 how do we run
this race together first we have to
commit to the race now I am NOT going to
tell you anything new in this next
section but it’s worth repeating in the
West we need to buy less meat we need to
source locally we need to source we need
to buy seasonally and we need to throw
away less we need to recycle we need to
reuse we need to use more renewable
energies and insulate our homes
and we need to walk take the bus take
the train and if you really need to take
the plane you offset
it’s like buckling your seat belt we’re
not alone though last year 2017 the
World Economic Forum did a study of a
30,000 people under the age of 30 in a
hundred and eighty seven countries and
territories around the world climate
change was their biggest concern and if
you ask them would you change the way
you behave would you change your
lifestyle to protect the environment the
answer was a resounding yes and that’s a
good thing because we need to go beyond
the individual we need to use our voice
our wallet our vote we need to be
employees we need to be consumers we
need to be citizens because we need to
get others to commit to we need to ask
for a commitment to valuing carbon and
carbon pricing we need to commit to
disclosure and reporting we need to
commit to investments into our
infrastructure buildings our cities our
energy and transport systems and we need
to ask for investment in our natural
infrastructure that underpins our entire
economy and this works right now a fifth
of the global fortune 500 companies have
signed up to science-based targets all
those companies are thinking about the
future and this is Hilda Heine
she is the president of the Marshall
Islands the Marshall Islands at 1.5
degrees centigrade they will evacuate
their entire population she is also the
head of a group of 48 countries which
are climate vulnerable and they’ll be
meeting virtually next months to review
the IPCC report findings she has written
a plan for her country which brings them
to carbon neutrality by 2050 and she
said if a nation is small and as
isolated as mine can
– this pathway than so can others
imagine if in 2020 a group of the big
emitters supported by their populations
committed together to change we also
need to gear up this is about using
technology to help us now there’s some
good news here
renewable energies are a great success
story ten years ago fossil fuels grabbed
the majority of investment over the past
six years investment in in renewable
energies like wind and solar has
outstripped investment in fossil fuels
in 2017 for renewable energies were the
fastest growing energy source for the
planet
the thing is we need that type of
investment that type of innovation and
drive beyond renewable energy we need it
in industry we need it in agriculture we
need it in mobility the good news there
are already points of light this month
there was the first commercial flight
across the Atlantic fuelled by recycled
industrial gases from steelmaking that’s
the CEO of the New Zealand founded
company you can see on the screen this
company takes yeast and brews it for two
weeks and it turns into leather which
can be used instead of leveraging our
animals you can see the chief creative
officer there and the leather that they
produce was used in a beautiful exhibit
at MoMA this company uses plants to
create fake meat now you might how will
that taste I promise you my husband who
is French said that this is delicious
and it was also you can see the chef who
served a hundred meals using this at the
annual meeting in Davos it really is
remarkable it’s also available now in
restaurants in 3,000 places in the US so
this isn’t just something brewing in a
lab
this is a commercial commercialized
innovation an example from finance this
company pays you in a type of Bitcoin
for ocean recyclable plastics so if we
do this right collectively these
innovations and these changes in
different industries could build to a
new type of economy a circular economy
one which is not in conflict with the
planet but it’s not enough just to gear
up we also have to connect if you’re
going on a race you need your team with
you when you hit a wall it’s also known
that most great lasting social movements
start with small cells of people who
think that towards a common goal and
then they connect we’re already seeing
this happening on a small level these
are young people connected with the
forum in one case in Dhaka Bangladesh
they’ve planted 10,000 trees in 27
different places across South Asia
linking with local schools this group in
San Salvador collected 500 pounds of
plastic in collaboration with a local
NGO and this group in Amsterdam created
their own fashion revolution week
linking with 13 places around the world
virtually with local experts and and and
clothes swaps and all sorts of
incredible things but then we get to a
bigger scale cities by 2050 as you know
70 percent of us will live in cities
there are some cities now which have a
GD P greater than countries this year
70s large cities committed to carbon
neutrality by 2025 that represents 425
million people it includes Accra it
includes Mexico City it includes Tokyo
it includes Los Angeles we’re in 2016
emissions dropped by 11 percent whilst
their economy grew Copenhagen took it
even further they say no we’re going to
reach carbon neutrality by 2025 in seven
years and on a bigger stale scale still
what we’re starting to see is unlikely
and unusual non-traditional groups of
people coming together this is a sample
of just a few of the the logos of some
of these to give you a snapshot we mean
business
gathers together 700 businesses the oil
and gas climate initiative represents
30% of the world’s oil production
Chevron and Exxon just joined with new
leadership and they’ve set targets for
methane for the group the Climate Action
Network brings together 1,300 NGOs from
around the world to collaborate on
climate action and the investors agenda
was formed this year 400 investors their
collective assets is a third bigger than
the GDP of the United States so we are
starting to see a movement but then we
have to imagine the finishing line and
this is going to be different for
different people for some it’ll be that
the world is healthier we’ll have
averted about 700,000 premature deaths
from air pollution alone for some this
will be that the world is more efficient
it’ll be cleaner for some it’ll be that
we’re in harmony with nature for some
it’ll be that we are more resilient and
strong it’s estimated that there will be
26 trillion in economic benefit from
climate action and 65 million more green
jobs but what I think is true is that in
this age of artificial intelligence
really it is the ambition it’s the
solidarity it’s the creativity of humans
that will shine through and if we commit
if we commit if we gear up if we join up
and if we keep our imagination
and our hope then we can win this race
and perhaps we and our children will
never see a world that’s beyond 1.5
thank you [Applause]
ladies and gentlemen this month we
learned a lot about our beautiful
beautiful planet this month the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change published a special report it was
based on 6,000 scientific studies they
responded to 42,000 comments one by one
the policy summary was approved by
governments line by line
they’d been asked in 2015 to answer the
question what would the world look like
if global warming reached 1.5 degrees
centigrade above pre-industrial levels
that’s 1850 to 1900 they were asked to
describe a world at two degrees
centigrade and they were asked to
describe the pathways we could take to
limit our global warming to 1.5 to not
go beyond 1.5 now what temperature of
global warming are we at right now the
answer is one degree where are we headed
the answer is by the end of the century
if we do nothing 3 at least and we’re
already seeing glimpses of what the
future will hold
hurricanes forest fires in the Arctic
Circle droughts in major cities like
Cape Town and floods these are just a
select few pictures from this year alone
in that context the IPCC report was
sobering reading the difference that
half a degree makes is very big at 1.5
degrees centigrade of global warming we
may have some coral reefs left to be
able to regenerate at 2 degrees we
virtually wiped it out at 1.5 degrees
6% of insects
we’ll lose half their natural habitat at
two degrees that is three times as bad
at one degree centigrade every hundred
years we would see an Arctic summer
without sea ice at two degrees that will
happen every ten years and at two
degrees about 420 million people more
will see record temperatures on a
regular basis now on a positive note the
authors of this report who are drawn
from all over the world said that we
still have an opportunity to reach
carbon neutrality by 2050 they described
four different pathways but they said it
will take a fundamental change in our
systems it will take change of the type
that we have not seen in human history
in terms of scale and speed we are now
on a sprint to 2020 in 2020 what will
happen it’s the fifth anniversary of the
Paris Accord and in 2020 every country
is asked to come back together and
present a more ambitious national plan
the sum of those plans needs to put us
back on track so we’re facing climate
breakdown on one hand which is frankly
terrifying we’re facing a global sprint
on the other hand which is utterly
daunting and so it’s worth using the
moment of this report to ask ourselves
how do we sprint to 2020 how do we run
this race together first we have to
commit to the race now I am NOT going to
tell you anything new in this next
section but it’s worth repeating in the
West we need to buy less meat we need to
source locally we need to source we need
to buy seasonally and we need to throw
away less we need to recycle we need to
reuse we need to use more renewable
energies and insulate our homes
and we need to walk take the bus take
the train and if you really need to take
the plane you offset
it’s like buckling your seat belt we’re
not alone though last year 2017 the
World Economic Forum did a study of a
30,000 people under the age of 30 in a
hundred and eighty seven countries and
territories around the world climate
change was their biggest concern and if
you ask them would you change the way
you behave would you change your
lifestyle to protect the environment the
answer was a resounding yes and that’s a
good thing because we need to go beyond
the individual we need to use our voice
our wallet our vote we need to be
employees we need to be consumers we
need to be citizens because we need to
get others to commit to we need to ask
for a commitment to valuing carbon and
carbon pricing we need to commit to
disclosure and reporting we need to
commit to investments into our
infrastructure buildings our cities our
energy and transport systems and we need
to ask for investment in our natural
infrastructure that underpins our entire
economy and this works right now a fifth
of the global fortune 500 companies have
signed up to science-based targets all
those companies are thinking about the
future and this is Hilda Heine
she is the president of the Marshall
Islands the Marshall Islands at 1.5
degrees centigrade they will evacuate
their entire population she is also the
head of a group of 48 countries which
are climate vulnerable and they’ll be
meeting virtually next months to review
the IPCC report findings she has written
a plan for her country which brings them
to carbon neutrality by 2050 and she
said if a nation is small and as
isolated as mine can
– this pathway than so can others
imagine if in 2020 a group of the big
emitters supported by their populations
committed together to change we also
need to gear up this is about using
technology to help us now there’s some
good news here
renewable energies are a great success
story ten years ago fossil fuels grabbed
the majority of investment over the past
six years investment in in renewable
energies like wind and solar has
outstripped investment in fossil fuels
in 2017 for renewable energies were the
fastest growing energy source for the
planet
the thing is we need that type of
investment that type of innovation and
drive beyond renewable energy we need it
in industry we need it in agriculture we
need it in mobility the good news there
are already points of light this month
there was the first commercial flight
across the Atlantic fuelled by recycled
industrial gases from steelmaking that’s
the CEO of the New Zealand founded
company you can see on the screen this
company takes yeast and brews it for two
weeks and it turns into leather which
can be used instead of leveraging our
animals you can see the chief creative
officer there and the leather that they
produce was used in a beautiful exhibit
at MoMA this company uses plants to
create fake meat now you might how will
that taste I promise you my husband who
is French said that this is delicious
and it was also you can see the chef who
served a hundred meals using this at the
annual meeting in Davos it really is
remarkable it’s also available now in
restaurants in 3,000 places in the US so
this isn’t just something brewing in a
lab
this is a commercial commercialized
innovation an example from finance this
company pays you in a type of Bitcoin
for ocean recyclable plastics so if we
do this right collectively these
innovations and these changes in
different industries could build to a
new type of economy a circular economy
one which is not in conflict with the
planet but it’s not enough just to gear
up we also have to connect if you’re
going on a race you need your team with
you when you hit a wall it’s also known
that most great lasting social movements
start with small cells of people who
think that towards a common goal and
then they connect we’re already seeing
this happening on a small level these
are young people connected with the
forum in one case in Dhaka Bangladesh
they’ve planted 10,000 trees in 27
different places across South Asia
linking with local schools this group in
San Salvador collected 500 pounds of
plastic in collaboration with a local
NGO and this group in Amsterdam created
their own fashion revolution week
linking with 13 places around the world
virtually with local experts and and and
clothes swaps and all sorts of
incredible things but then we get to a
bigger scale cities by 2050 as you know
70 percent of us will live in cities
there are some cities now which have a
GD P greater than countries this year
70s large cities committed to carbon
neutrality by 2025 that represents 425
million people it includes Accra it
includes Mexico City it includes Tokyo
it includes Los Angeles we’re in 2016
emissions dropped by 11 percent whilst
their economy grew Copenhagen took it
even further they say no we’re going to
reach carbon neutrality by 2025 in seven
years and on a bigger stale scale still
what we’re starting to see is unlikely
and unusual non-traditional groups of
people coming together this is a sample
of just a few of the the logos of some
of these to give you a snapshot we mean
business
gathers together 700 businesses the oil
and gas climate initiative represents
30% of the world’s oil production
Chevron and Exxon just joined with new
leadership and they’ve set targets for
methane for the group the Climate Action
Network brings together 1,300 NGOs from
around the world to collaborate on
climate action and the investors agenda
was formed this year 400 investors their
collective assets is a third bigger than
the GDP of the United States so we are
starting to see a movement but then we
have to imagine the finishing line and
this is going to be different for
different people for some it’ll be that
the world is healthier we’ll have
averted about 700,000 premature deaths
from air pollution alone for some this
will be that the world is more efficient
it’ll be cleaner for some it’ll be that
we’re in harmony with nature for some
it’ll be that we are more resilient and
strong it’s estimated that there will be
26 trillion in economic benefit from
climate action and 65 million more green
jobs but what I think is true is that in
this age of artificial intelligence
really it is the ambition it’s the
solidarity it’s the creativity of humans
that will shine through and if we commit
if we commit if we gear up if we join up
and if we keep our imagination
and our hope then we can win this race
and perhaps we and our children will
never see a world that’s beyond 1.5
thank you [Applause]
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