Global Philanthropy Forum: “Global governance – the case of climate change”

Washington, DC, 18 April 2012

 

Statement by
Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

 

 

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

I am very honoured to address you at this important forum and to address such a distinguished audience.

 

Over the past days, you have discussed a wealth of important topics and ideas and many of them revolve around the need for new systems and new ways of doing things.  

 

Indeed, more than perhaps ever before, we need new ways of doing things. The old ways have not brought the desired results:

• Still over 3 billion people live on less than $2.50 per day
• Still over 1 billion people have no access to clean water
• Still some 2.4 billion people have no access to reliable, safe energy

 

To make matters worse, we have realised that climate change and its impacts will exacerbate the suffering of the billions of people that make up these painful statistics.

 

Just last month, the World Meteorological Organization stated that elevated temperatures contributed to extreme weather conditions such as intense droughts and flooding in East Africa, Asia and North America, with the US having had one of the most destructive tornado seasons on record. Projections indicate that such extreme event will become even more severe going forward.

 

Clearly, climate change impacts are beginning to undo many of the development gains that have been made over the past 20, 30 years, including many of the gains that philanthropy has achieved.

 

• Yet still greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, mainly from fossil fuel-based energy
• Still forests are simply cleared, further increasing emissions
• And still unsustainable pathways are being supported financially

 

Business-as-usual is not doing the world any favours – not now, and especially not in the long-term. And continuing with business-as-usual is very likely to end up driving even the most successful out of business.

 

We all know of sustainable development as a viable alternative and we all know that we need to make it happen. In fact, I am convinced that we all know that sustainable development needs an urgent breakthrough – a breakthrough in action. 

 

The good news is that we are not starting from scratch.

 

Momentum for both the sustainability and the energy revolutions is building –and this can be seen in emerging policies and in growing investment trends.

 

Key emerging policies include both climate change and renewable energy policies. Almost all countries now have climate change policies in place that deal with both adaptation to the impacts of climate change, as well as with emission reductions or mitigation.  They are there to be built upon.

 

In terms of investment trends, the transformation is slowly becoming visible and – I would like to underline – is powering ahead despite difficult economic and investment conditions.  Last December, Bloomberg reported that the trillionth dollar of investment in renewable energy had just been spent.

 

These investments are occurring for the very good reason that clean and renewable energy solutions are becoming the smart investment of the future because they will thrive in almost any economic scenario.

 

Next to increasing investments and budding national policies, international climate policy is becoming clearer and is now an important contributing factor to sustainable development and the clean energy revolution.

 

In that context allow me to give you a quick overview of the Durban Climate Change Conference and its outcomes.

 

Although media reporting was mixed, I believe that time will show that the Durban Climate Change Conference was the most encompassing and furthest reaching conference in the history of the climate change negotiations.

 

Four key outcomes were achieved in Durban:

1. It secured the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol with its solid greenhouse gas accounting rules, its market based mechanisms and its legally binding status.  But the Protocol only covers 10–15% of global emissions, and governments know efforts must go way beyond that.   So in Durban, governments also confirmed their intent to undertake broader and immediate mitigation action outside of the Protocol.
2. The Durban conference cemented the mitigation plans of all industrialized nations plus 49 developing countries.  The sum of those countries accounts for 80% of global emissions, so a higher level of participation than under the Kyoto Protocol, but this participation will be voluntary (although rigorously measured) from now until 2020.  
3. Governments know there must be more certainty than that which is offered by voluntary action, so in Durban they also decided to embark on a future legal framework that will cover all nations of the world, to be negotiated by 2015, and go into effect by 2020.  Universal participation in legally grounded mitigation targets is a remarkable departure from the past and is Durban’s major gift.  Additionally, they agreed to embark on a work programme to achieve larger emission reductions.
4. A strategy as ambitious as the above must be effectively supported and responsibly guided.  Governments have therefore in Durban further established the infrastructure to support developing countries, which includes financial and technological support for climate action.

 

With these results, there is no doubt that Durban delivered beyond expectations.

 

While much of its outcomes are complex and technical, two things stand out: 1) the universal political will to act on climate change is tangible; and 2) Durban was a loud message for the world: the future is unmistakably low-carbon, high resilience!

 

So governments have clearly set the direction, but this is not enough. Considering the scale of the transformation necessary, it is clear that governments cannot deliver on their own.  Philanthropic and private funding and engagement in implementation will be essential, because the solution to the climate challenge needs to be “crowded in”, that is, everyone must participate.

 

So where should funders focus their funding?

 

I see two areas which, if fully evolved, can make a significant stride towards a low-carbon and sustainable future:

• The first centres on the need to increase public awareness, create a demand for decisive government action and increase government’s political space.
• The second area centres on the need to accelerate action on the ground.  

 

Increasing public awareness

 

Increased awareness among the public on climate change will increase the political space within which government decision-makers can act.  Many stakeholder groups have the potential to influence the public as well as decision-makers.  Yet this is frequently undermined by fragmentation and inconsistency of messages.

 

Philanthropists are well positioned to increase public awareness.  This is most effective if it is done in a coordinated fashion, and in a way that attracts the engagement of the private sector.

 

While governments set the policies that provide the frameworks for action, it is the private sector that innovates, establishes trends, influences consumer behaviour and creates new business opportunities where hitherto there had been none.

 

 Accelerating action on the ground

 

Successful action on reducing emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change is already underway in a number of areas and by a number of actors. However, current action can only represent a starting-point that needs to be accelerated and enhanced to the point where it becomes the norm.

 

Philanthropy, especially in the US, has already made important contributions towards sustainable development.  From Ted Turner to the Hewletts to Warren Buffett, all have advanced green actions.  Philanthropy has also driven corporate social responsibility into mainstream business operations.  In that same spirit, philanthropy can and should now make low carbon the business model for both private and public sectors. 

 

Ladies and gentlemen, there is no doubt that we are living in a challenging moment.  We are still suffering the aftereffects of the financial crisis, we are still trying to assess the future role of nuclear in the global energy mix, still have climate deniers and vested interests which would prefer no progress on climate policy.  Many circumstances are put forth as the reasons why it is difficult to take the necessary decisions, but from the perspective of our children, these circumstances are merely a signal to noise ratio problem.  So much noise, we are not getting the signal.

 

A few weeks ago a journalist asked me what kept me up at night.  Let me tell you.  I lie awake at night seeing the eyes of seven generations of children in front of us, asking “What did you do?”  I want you and I to be able to courageously answer:  “We were the generation which first realized the consequences of what we were doing.  We were also the generation that turned that around.”  Anything else, my friends, is a total abdication of our responsibility as temporary stewards of this planet.

 

Thank you.

  

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