UN
Global Climate Action
8
February
2022 | |
High Level Climate Champions
Newsletter | |
We hope you
have all recovered from the COP26 in Glasgow and
are excited for another busy and fruitful year
ahead. We are excited to be starting a new
relationship with the Egyptian COP27 Presidency,
and look forward to the appointment of the
Egyptian High-Level Champion.
Once that
happens, the Champions will jointly develop and
share this year’s work plan to implement the
five-year Improved
Marrakech Partnership for enhancing
ambition plan,
welcomed by Parties at COP26 and included themes
such as mobilizing private finance for
developing countries,
strengthening resilience, regionalization
and enhancing credibility and transparency.
Watch this
space for more, and very much look forward to
collaborating with all of you this
year! | |
Time to Bridge the Gap Between
Awareness
and
Action | |
At COP26, our national and global self
interests aligned in a way that drove
cooperation and resulted in the Glasgow Climate
Pact, COP26 President Alok Sharma said in a recent
speech at Chatham House. That pact is a success. It recognizes the
science and calls on countries to phase down
unabated coal-fired power and phase out
inefficient fossil fuel subsidies. It asks
countries to revisit and strengthen their 2030
emission reduction targets by the end of this
year. And it commits countries to scale up
climate finance and double finance for
adaptation by 2025.
“Yet, at the moment they are just words on
a page,” Sharma said. “And unless we honour the
promises made, to turn the commitments in the
Glasgow Climate Pact into action, they will
wither on the vine.”
And the world is still far off the path to
stabilizing global warming at 1.5°C, UNFCCC
Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa said
at Project Syndicate’s Green Growth event. “It’s
why COP26 was not the end of anything. It was an
important step forward, but our work and the
work of Parties continues towards COP27.” This transformation from commitment to
reality involves the entire global economy, and
it won’t reach the necessary speed and scale
without leadership from businesses, investors,
cities, regions and civil society encouraging
their governments to keep raising
ambitions.
Private sector and local government leaders
understand the cost of doing nothing and
benefits of acting now better than ever before,
as new research shows.
Among business executives surveyed late
last year, 97% said their companies had already
been negatively impacted by climate change, of
which half saw impacts on their operations,
according to Deloitte’s 2022 CxO Sustainability
Report. The number of executives who see the
world at a tipping point for responding to the
climate crisis jumped to 79% in late 2021, from
59% eight months earlier. Similarly, “climate action failure” was the
number one risk cited by leaders in business,
government and civil society in the World
Economic Forum’s 2022 Global
Risks Perception Survey. That was followed
by concerns about extreme weather due to climate
change, and biodiversity loss. However, there is still a disconnect
between the perceived risks leaders see and the
action they take, Deloitte found. Only
two-thirds of executives said their
organizations had shifted to more sustainable
materials and increased energy efficiency.
This is our year to bridge that disconnect.
In his speech, Sharma set out the COP26
Presidency’s four priorities for 2022:
- Keep the temperature limit of 1.5°C within
reach by setting plans to reach net zero
emissions before 2050 and strengthening emission
reduction targets for 2030.
- Double finance for adaptation and advance
talks on loss and damage.
- Set plans to deliver the developed world’s
commitment of US$100 billion per year in climate
finance and discuss a new goal for 2025.
- Push action across key sectors, including
energy, cars and deforestation.
The transition comes with costs, but if
managed well, they will be outweighed by
benefits.
Reaching net zero by 2050 requires around
US$9.2 trillion per year of capital spending on
physical assets for energy and land use from
2021, according to McKinsey’s Net Zero
Transition report. But it could lead to 15
million net new jobs. In Asia
Pacific, acting on climate change would add
US$47 trillion to the region’s economies by 2070
- whereas failure to act would wipe US$96
trillion by 2070, according to Deloitte. In Europe, reaching net zero
emissions by 2050 would add €730 billion (US$825
billion) to the economies by 2070, whereas
inaction would cost €6 trillion (US$6.7
trillion). In the United
States, action would lead to a US$3 trillion
gain by 2070, inaction to a US$14.5 trillion
loss. | |
The shipping
industry accounts for about 3% of global
greenhouse gas emissions. Its emissions already
rose by 4.9% in 2021 from 2020, surpassing
pre-pandemic levels, according to a report by
shipbroker Simpson
Spence Young.
If left
unchecked, shipping emissions could grow by 50%
from 2008 levels by 2050, making net zero
emissions by 2050 all but
unattainable.
We saw
significant progress in commitment in Glasgow,
with initiatives announced to establish
zero-emission shipping routes, accelerate the
sector’s decarbonization and ensure a just and
people-centred transition. The Climate
Vulnerable Forum of 55 countries called
at COP26 for a mandatory levy on international
shipping emissions in line with limiting warming
to 1.5°C, and for the revenues to be used for
urgent climate action.
The cities
and the private sector are already moving in
that direction. In January, the ports of
Los
Angeles and Shanghai, along with C40 Cities
agreed to create the world’s first green
shipping corridor, between the US and China.
AP
Moller-Maersk
also moved its net zero target up to 2040, from
2050, in response to growing customer demand for
clean transport and technological advances. It
aims to reduce absolute emissions by 35-50%
between 2020 and 2030.
But cutting
emissions is not enough. To be robust and
sustainable, the shipping industry’s race to
zero emissions must
support a just and equitable transition for
people,
account for the impact
of a changing climate, and
build the resilience of coastal and port
communities and infrastructures already suffering from
these impacts.
Coastal urban
areas could face more than US$1 trillion per
year in costs by 2050 from the effects of rising
sea levels and extreme weather events. Small
island developing states and least developed
countries would bear the brunt of these costs,
exacerbating today’s inequalities.
So the sector
that’s responsible for 90% of our trade needs to
race to zero emissions and greater resilience at
the same time - and with speed.
Investing in
the resilience of ports and surrounding
communities is important to both challenges.
Ports can become hubs for clean shore power
systems and shipping fuels, which can be
connected to domestic power grids. This will
help to decarbonize cities and create jobs. Work
to restore and protect the nature around ports
can further buffer coastal zones against rising
sea levels, extreme storms and heat, and support
jobs and livelihoods.
Turning the
COP26
Clydebank Declaration for Green Shipping
Corridors into
reality will be especially important to the
sector’s race to zero emissions and resilience.
In it, 22 countries committed to establish at
least six zero-emission shipping routes by 2025,
saying they can catalyze and accelerate the
maritime sector’s decarbonization and unlock new
business opportunities and socioeconomic
benefits.
The UN’s
One
Ocean Summit,
in France on 9-11 February, offers an
opportunity for governments, multilateral
institutions, business leaders and civil society
to accelerate the roll-out of operational green
corridors, which will showcase zero-emission
ships and resilient ports and communities.
For
more on how to transform shipping for climate,
people and nature, read our story
here.
| |
- Egypt will open its first green
hydrogen plant in November, generating
50-100 megawatts as feedstock for green ammonia
production, Sovereign Wealth Fund of Egypt Ayman
Soliman announced.
- China connected more offshore wind
generation capacity in 2021 than every other
country in the world installed in the last five
years, Forbes reports. China now
operates nearly half the world’s installed
offshore wind.
- Nearly half the world’s most
climate-vulnerable nations were unable to access
the first round of grants for adaptation
projects from the UN’s
Green Climate Fund, Carbon Brief reports.
That includes 13 of the 30 least developed
countries in Africa.
- Africa has its first chief heat officer:
Eugenia Kargbo, in Freetown. She’s been
appointed to help combat rising temperatures and
come up with everyday ways to cool the Sierra
Leone capital city’s sweltering streets, the World
Economic Forum writes.
- By 2080, around 70% of the world's oceans
could be suffocating from a lack of oxygen as a
result of climate change, potentially impacting
marine ecosystems worldwide, scientists have
found.
- The Friends
of Ocean Action says 2022 is the year the
world can halt the decline of the ocean’s
health, with a string of pivotal meetings on
driving ocean action.
- UN Climate Change launched a new toolkit designed to help
countries implement policies and measures that
increase resilience to climate impacts and
reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with case
studies from Malawi, Indonesia, Fiji, Colombia,
Pakistan, Trinidad and Tobago, Papua New Guinea
and Sri Lanka and resources from non-State
actors.
- The creation of a new marine
reserve in Ecuador is securing a biological
corridor from the threats of climate change,
nature and biodiversity loss for endangered
species, including sea turtles, manta rays,
whales and sharks.
- The global sale of plug-in electric vehicles
is set to surpass 10 million in 2022, accounting
for around 14% of all vehicle sales, according
to BloombergNEF. That’s up from
6.6 million in 2021 and 3.2 million in
2020.
- The Earthshot Prize is now seeking
nominations of eco-innovators and breakthrough
solutions for the second year in a row. Winners
will receive £1 million. Nominations are due by
4
March.
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