Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / UN chief urges 'credible plan' for climate change

Transcript

UN chief urges 'credible plan' for climate change · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 0:00
  Speaker 2: The Prime Minister Sekirre Starmer and Prince William are among
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: those gathering in Belem in northern Brazil ahead of the
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: UN Climate Conference next week. The gateway city to the
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Brazilian Amazon is hosting what's being dubbed the Forest cop Well.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: It takes place a decade after the Paris Climate Agreement,
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: in which countries pledge to try and restrict the rise
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: in global temperatures to one point five degrees. While a
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: recent UN report warned the governments are falling short of
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: those promises made, the UN chief said this year's meetings
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: must end with a credible plan. While Brazil hopes that
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: the location of this year's meeting will highlight the importance
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: of protecting the environment and its ecosystems. But there are
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: some key countries who won't be attending this time, big
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: economies and big polluters China, India and the United States will.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Our climate editor just enroll Out reports.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: The fight against climate change has come to the edge
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: of the Amazon rain forest itself. But at a time
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: when faith in the international climate process is faltering, they're
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: still building the massive conference center that will host this summit.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: The official opening is on Monday.
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: Only a couple of dozen world leaders are expected here
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: in Brazil for what is in effect the grand opening
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: of this conference.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: The leaders of China, India.
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: And the US, together responsible for roughly half of world emissions,
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: will not be present. The US is withdrawing from the
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: Paris Agreement entirely, and the UN has conceded that the
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: latest round of carbon cutting commitments made by the countries
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: of the world fall short. It is not an auspicious
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: background for this summit.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Current commitments still point to climate breakdown. Scientists still asks
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: that the temporary overshoot above one point five degrees is
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: now inevitable, starting at the latest in the early twenty thirties,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: and the best relivable future gets steeper by the day.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: Yet there are glimmers of progress. Renewable energy technologies are
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: being deployed around the world far faster than was anticipated
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: a decade ago, and the global rise in CO two
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: emissions has nearly leveled off. However, these advances have been
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: driven more by market forces than by the Paris Agreement,
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: so whether this vast conference in Brazil can help restore
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: confidence in the UN climate process remains an open question.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: Justin Rollad BBC News beleng.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Well, let's speak to Nigel top In, a former UN
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Climate Change High Level Champion from the COP twenty six
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: presidency and more crucially, the current chair of the UK's
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Climate Change Committee. Welcome to BBC News. We talk about
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: these meetings every year and what's quite startling is if
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: we look ten years on from Paris agreements and targets
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: haven't been met, have they? What hope do you have
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: of this year summit actually achieving as the UN wants
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: credible goals.
• 3:14
  Speaker 5: Well, I think I challenged the assertion that the process
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: is not working and nothing has been met, and that
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: we were on a trajectory for significantly north of four
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: degrees before Paris. So the curve has been bent but
• 3:26
  Speaker 5: not enough and we are going to overshoot one point
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: five degrees. It's a ratchet process and every five years
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: countries have to come back with new plans and we
• 3:36
  Speaker 5: are seeing more ambient The Chinese plan is significantly more
• 3:39
  Speaker 5: ambitious now for the first time that we'll see them
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: commit to reduce their emissions in absolute terms, and they've
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: always overcommit, they've always over delivered on there, so I
• 3:49
  Speaker 5: think what this is really going to be about is
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: moving on from the negotiation phase to moving into the
• 3:54
  Speaker 5: implementation phase, what we call the action agenda, and as
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: many many ministers and mayors and CEOs and financeers here
• 4:03
  Speaker 5: in Brazil looking at what actually has to happen to
• 4:06
  Speaker 5: accelerate renewal energy, electric vehicles, clean industry and their food
• 4:12
  Speaker 5: and land contribution to talk.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Talk about what needs to happen, Nigel, But you can't
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: help but notice the fact that three massive economies, massive
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: polluters as well, who are at the heart of these discussions,
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: aren't showing up this year, the US, India and China
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: who you mentioned, just them, Well.
• 4:30
  Speaker 5: I think it's not true that they're not showing up.
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: I think that they're talking about the leaders, some of
• 4:34
  Speaker 5: the heads of state. Of course, the USA are withdrawing
• 4:37
  Speaker 5: from Paris, which is the Paris Room, which is not good.
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: But the Indian and the Chinese delegation will be here.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: The leaders aren't there. I mean it's a sign of
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: lack of kind of commitment in the sense that we
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: have seen the leaders attend previous cops, haven't we.
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think you'd prefer to see a stronger turn out.
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: But I think you I always look like to look
• 4:58
  Speaker 5: at what's really happening on the ground in the economy,
• 5:01
  Speaker 5: and they're in both China and India are accelerating their
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: investment in renewable energy at a place and shifting quickly
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: towards electric vehicles, two big sectors that are really driving
• 5:13
  Speaker 5: down demand for fossil fuels in the future.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: And just very briefly, if I can, what are the
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: main themes that you hope will dominate this year's summit
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: talk about electric vehicles. There's also of course about ensuring
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: that countries that are impacted the hardest get money to
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: support rehabilitation after these climate disasters. These things come up
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: every year, loss and damage funds. What do you want
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: to be at the heart of this year's agenda.
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: Well, finance is always at the heart, and there are
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: real headwinds there, but well, there's some quite creative new
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: instruments being developed to the launch to provide finance for
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: countries who are looking after standing forests. I think there
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: will be a big episence on adaptation really, with the
• 6:00
  Speaker 5: emphasis on how investment needs to flow to make economies
• 6:04
  Speaker 5: develop in a more resilient way, and then a lot
• 6:08
  Speaker 5: of emphasis on nature, how we pay for the restoration
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: of degraded lands and to transition towards regenital agriculture, a
• 6:16
  Speaker 5: big focus at the Brazilian TOP.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Okay, Nigel Top, and thank you very much for sharing
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: your thoughts ahead of those meetings. Of course, let's see
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: what comes out of them next week