Leaders, at U.N. Climate Talks, Get Their Chance to Answer Youth Protests
UNITED NATIONS — Just days after angry youth protests demanding swift action to fight climate change, the United Nations climate summit opened Monday, where dozens of presidents, prime ministers and corporate executives sought to highlight their efforts to reduce planet-warming emissions.
No sooner had it begun than the teenage Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, her voice quavering like it rarely does, lit into them, excoriating world leaders for their “business as usual” approach to bringing down greenhouse gas emissions at a time when temperatures are swiftly rising. “The eyes of all future generations are upon you,” she said, visibly angry. “If you choose to fail us, I say we will never forgive you.” Throughout the morning came a series of incremental promises and a great many boasts.
China, currently the world’s largest emitter of greenhouses gases, noted that it was meeting its targets under the Paris Agreement, the pact among nations to jointly fight climate change, but stopped short of promising quicker, stronger targets as many had hoped.
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, said his country would increase its share of renewable energy by 2022, without making any promises to reduce its dependence on coal. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany promoted a new plan worth $60 billion over 10 years to speed a transition to clean power. Britain, Norway, Costa Rica and 12 other countries will promise to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Collectively, the promises were a signal of how much other countries are willing to do in the face of inaction by the United States, which is responsible for the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions since the industrial age.
Late morning, President Trump unexpectedly dropped into the General Assembly hall with Vice President Mike Pence. Michael R. Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor, welcomed Mr. Trump’s presence and addressed the president directly by saying, “Hopefully our discussions here will be useful for you when you formulate climate policy.”
That was followed by laughter and applause. It signaled a sharp contrast from just a few years ago, when the United States was credited for pushing other countries, including China, to take climate change seriously. The United States is not on track to meet its pledges under the Paris climate agreement, and the Trump administration has rolled back a host of environmental regulations, from automobile tailpipes, coal plants and oil and gas wells.
In this body of nations, some of the most notable pledges came from cities and private companies, including banks, large asset funds and shipping firms.
The gap between the incremental promises being made in the hall and the dramatic effects of climate change could not be more stark.
The world is getting hotter, faster, the World Meteorological Organization concluded in its latest report Sunday, with the five-year period between 2014 and 2019 the warmest on record. Emissions of carbon dioxide, a major contributor to global warming when it is pumped into the atmosphere, are at all time highs. The seas are rising rapidly. The average global temperature is 1.1 degrees Celsius higher than what it was in the mid-19th century, and at the current pace, average global temperatures will be 3 degrees Celsius higher by the end of the century.
“I will not be there, but my granddaughters will, and your grandchildren, too,” the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, told those assembled inside the General Assembly hall. “I refuse to be an accomplice in the destruction of their one and only home.”
The president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, said 30 countries had pledged to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. The pledges are seen as critical to reinforcing the Paris Agreement. Mr. Guterres’s most direct call went to those countries that use money from their taxpayers to subsidize fossil fuel projects that, as he put it, “boost hurricanes, spread tropical diseases and heighten conflict.”
“We are in a deep climate hole. To get out, we must first stop digging,” he said. “Is it common sense to build ever more coal plants that are choking our future? Is it common sense to reward pollution that kills millions with dirty air and makes it dangerous for people in cities around the world to sometimes even venture out of their homes?”
The Trump administration did not request a speaking slot at the summit. Several United States governors were present and expected to announce stepped-up goals on reducing their own emissions.
Wang Yi, a special representative of the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, took a swipe at the United States, saying, “China will faithfully fulfill its obligations.” Obliquely referencing Mr. Trump’s plan to abandon the Paris Agreement he added, “The withdrawal of certain parties will not shake the international community.”
China’s decision to not signal higher ambition reflects, in part, concerns about its own slowing economy against the backdrop of conflicts with the United States on trade. It also reflected Beijing’s reluctance to take stronger climate action in the absence of similar moves from richer countries. The European Union hasn’t signaled its intention to cut emissions faster either, and the United States is nowhere on track to meet its original commitments under the Paris accord.
“There’s no particular reason why China should do anything new now, because they’re not getting any pressure from the United States and they’re on track to achieve their commitments,” said Kelly Sims Gallagher, professor of energy and environmental policy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
“This extends the limbo while the rest of the world waits to see what the United States is going to be doing in 2020,” she said.
Other major emitters not speaking at the Monday summit are Australia, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Brazil. The Secretary General had said that only those who were ready to announce concrete new steps would be given speaking time.
Their absence underscored a growing global tension over the push to phase out coal, oil and gas.
According to the United Nations Environment Program, the world’s 20 largest economies, which account for 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, “are not yet taking on transformative climate commitments at the necessary breadth and scale.”
Scientists and policymakers have said that even holding warming to a less-dangerous 1.5 degrees would entail a significant transformation of the global energy system, costing trillions of dollars.
But the cost of doing nothing is also staggeringly high.
Studies show that if emissions continue to rise at their current pace,the number of people needing humanitarian aidas a result of natural disasterscould double by 2050. And a sweeping report from 13 United States federal agencies last year warned that failing to rein in warming could shave 10 percent off the country’s economy by century’s end.
