Taking climate action to the next level

When the Global Climate Action Summit convenes in San Francisco on September 12, 2018, one goal will be to affirm that the world beyond the Trumpian miasma is “still in” the Paris Accords. But the Sum- mit seeks also to “demonstrate that stronger commitments are necessary, desirable and achievable.”

This convening is commendable and very important. It is also an opportunity for we, the people, to be crystal clear about what we expect of those in power: these “stronger commitments” must at long last be commitments to actions fully responsive to the desperate situation the world now confronts.

Many climate scientists and others have reached the conclusion that, because we have dithered so long, we now face the prospect of both extreme impacts from global warming and ocean acidification and, eventu- ally, extreme rates of emission reduction. Every year of more procrastination makes both more difficult.

Read the paper by James Gustave Speth, Carla Santos Skandier, and Johanna Bozuwa - “Taking climate action to the next level.”

Great Barrier Reef 2050 plan no longer achievable due to climate change, experts say

The central aim of the government’s plan to protect the Great Barrier Reef is no longer achievable due to the dramatic impacts of climate change, experts have told the government’s advisory committees for the plan.

The Australian government's plan to protect
the Great Barrier Reef is no longer achievable.

Environmental lawyers said the revelation could mean the Great Barrier Reef might finally be listed as a “world heritage site in danger”, a move the federal and Queensland governments have strenuously fought.

The federal and Queensland government’s Reef 2050 Long Term Sustainability Plan was released in 2015, with it’s central vision to “ensure the Great Barrier Reef continues to improve on its outstanding universal values”. The plan was created to satisfy the Unesco World Heritage Centre, which was considering adding the Great Barrier Reef to its list of world heritage sites in danger, that its condition could be improved.

Read Michael Slezak’s story on The Guardian - “Great Barrier Reef 2050 plan no longer achievable due to climate change, experts say.”

Make climate change an economic - not green - issue, urges ex-president of Maldives

Winning effective action on climate change will require treating the problem less as an environmental or human rights crisis and more as a sensible economic shift, the former Maldives president said Thursday.

Former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed,
seated with former US vice president and
climate activist Al Gore and film producer Jeff
 Skill, addresses the audience at Sundance 2017,
Park City, Utah. 

“While it remains an ethical or human rights issue, it’s not so easy to have it in your political manifesto,” Mohamed Nasheed said, pointing to climate change’s political divisiveness in the United States.

But any politician, he said, can win votes by promising more jobs and a stronger economy – something eminently achievable if the world transitions to cleaner and more sustainable energy, a move that also would bring environmental and social benefits.

The world needs to package the benefits of a low-carbon transition in a way “that political parties can embrace”, said Nasheed, speaking at the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship in Oxford.

Read the Eco-Business story - “Make climate change an economic - not green - issue, urges ex-president of Maldives.”