UN
Climate Change
Global
Climate Action
9
October
2020 | |
It's
Time to Turn our Big Ideas into
Action | |
The
global countdown to a healthier, greener, more
resilient world kicks off on Saturday — 10.10.20
— with the launch of the Countdown
initiative to champion and accelerate solutions
to the climate crisis.
The
science is clear: The world must halve
greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and radically
regenerate nature at the same time, in order to
limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C.
Countdown,
powered by TED
and Future
Stewards,
seeks to answer five interconnected questions
that will inform the blueprint to a zero-carbon
economy by 2050:
● How
rapidly can we switch to 100 percent clean
power?
● How
can we upgrade the way we move and transport
people and things?
● How
can we re-imagine and re-make the materials
around us?
● How
can we spark a worldwide shift to healthier food
systems?
● How
do we better protect and re-green the earth?
Countdown
launches on Saturday with a five-hour virtual
event on YouTube,
where a stellar list of speakers will share the
solutions needed and call for leaders and people
alike to step up. Speakers
include
poet and activist Amanda Gorman; Freetown,
Sierra Leone, mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr; youth
activist Xiye Bastida; UN Secretary-General
António Guterres, UN Climate Change Executive
Secretary Patricia Espinosa, Pope Francis,
European Commission President Ursula von der
Leyen; ReNew Power Chief Technology Officer
Varun Sivaram; IKEA CEO Jesper Brodin; and
Global Optimism cofounder Christiana Figueres.
Celebrity hosts and performers include Mark
Ruffalo, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Jane Fonda,
Prince Royce, Yemi and Sigrid. The fifth and
closing session is all about action and what we
can do to accelerate the race to zero emissions,
including by joining the Race to
Zero.
Countdown
is a movement open to everyone — because
everyone has a role to play. So tune
in
on Saturday
from
8AM PT/ 11AM ET/ 4PM CEST/ 10PM CST,
and tell your friends, family, colleagues and
neighbours to #JoinTheCountdown.
After
10.10.20: Over the
next year,
Countdown will support cross-sector projects
designed to tackle climate-related challenges,
bringing together leaders from business,
finance, government, local communities, science,
the arts and philanthropy. Each project will set
bold goals and drive fresh commitments, leading
up to the Countdown Summit and the COP26 in
2021. Independent Countdown Circles will also
host citizen-led conversations around the world,
exploring the initiative's five fundamental
questions.
In
addition to the live global event, over
500 TEDx
Countdown virtual events
in nine languages are planned around the world,
encouraging communities and citizens to take
action locally while also feeding local
solutions and ideas into the global
conversation.
| |
Leaders’
Pledge for Nature: More
than 70 political leaders (and growing) have
signed a 10-point
pledge
to halt the destruction of nature by 2030.
Charoen
Pokphand Group takes aim at agriculture
emissions: Thailand’s
largest private company, CP Group, is targeting
net zero emissions across its operations by
2030. “As a conglomerate active across every
aspect of the food system, we need to do our
part to reduce the agriculture sector’s carbon
footprint and leverage innovation across our
businesses for a more sustainable future,”
Chief
Executive Suphachai Chearavanont wrote on
LinkedIn.
UK
National Health System goes for net zero:
Britain’s
largest employer, responsible for 4 percent of
the country’s carbon footprint, aims to
reduce the emissions
it can control by 2040 and those it can
influence in the supply chain by 2045.
Chile
to make hydrogen from wind: Enel
Green Power Chile is teaming up with Chilean
electricity company AME and others to install
a pilot project
that makes green hydrogen from wind in
Patagonia. Expected to start up in 2022, it will
be one of the largest green hydrogen plants in
Latin America.
Oxford’s
principles for carbon offsetting: Carbon
offsetting, if done properly, can contribute to
net zero strategies, especially in
hard-to-decarbonize sectors such as aviation and
agriculture. The University of Oxford’s
four
principles
will help ensure that happens.
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