The United Kingdom’s Conservative government has joined United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in calling for COVID-19 recovery plans to bolster the fight against climate change.
The UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told global leaders at a major climate summit that it was the “duty of every responsible government” to reboot economies along climate-resilient lines.
“This means investing in industries and infrastructure that can turn the tide on climate change,” Mr Raab said in a pre-recorded video message broadcast at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, which has been held virtually this year.
“And it means doing everything that we can to boost resilience by shaping economies that can withstand everything that nature throws at us.”
British environmental news website BusisnessGreen reports Mr Raab joined Mr Guterres, Chancellor Merkel, and UK Business Secretary and COP26 President Alok Sharma in the ‘high-level segment’ of the two-day climate diplomacy conference, which was attended virtually by more than 30 environment ministers from around the world.
Organised annually by Germany, the conference was co-hosted this year by the UK as incoming COP26 climate summit president.
Mr Raab delivered a short speech originally prepared for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is taking a staged return to work as he recuperates from the coronavirus.
BusinessGreen reports in the session’s closing statements, COP26 President Mr Sharma doubled down on his colleague’s calls for governments to prioritise climate action in their recovery plans.
He also promised the UK would work around the clock to raise the bar on climate action in the lead up to COP26, which was originally scheduled for Glasgow in November but has since postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic.
“As incoming COP presidency, our promise from the UK, together with partner Italy, is that our teams are going to work night and day to raise the ambition on climate change, and this does mean more ambition to reduce emissions, more ambition to build resilience, and more ambition to cooperate with each other, as we have done and shown today,” Mr Sharma said in a live video message.
The now extended lead up to COP26 provided a period where the world can “ramp up momentum towards climate-resilient, zero-carbon economy”, he added.
BusinessGreen reports Mr Sharma said it had been “heartening” to see so many of the forthcoming UN climate conference’s key pillars explored during the two-day Petersberg Climate Dialogue, highlighting the focus on the transition to clean energy and clean transport, the need for nature-based climate change mitigation and adaptation solutions, and plans to mobilise a renewed surge in green finance.
In the same session, Chancellor Merkel explicitly backed European Commission plans to introduce a European Green Deal and enhance the bloc’s emissions target to a 50 to 55 per cent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030 against 1990 levels.
“We will combine climate action with new economic perspectives and new jobs,” Chancellor Merkel added.
“Let me be clear: There will be a difficult debate about the allocation of funds.
“But it is important that recovery programmes always keep an eye on the climate, we must not sideline climate but invest in climate technologies.”
BusinessGreen reports Germany, like the UK and many other major economies around the world, has been under mounting pressure from business leaders, green groups, think tanks, and economists to resist the urge to rebuild coronavirus-hit economies in carbon-intensive ways, and in the short-term avoid bailing out polluting sectors, such as aviation, without stringent environmental conditions attached.
Also joining the conference on video, Mr Guterres reiterated a six-point action plan for recovery released earlier this month, which calls on governments to co-operate to tackle the COVID-19 crisis, generate green jobs that invigorate shattered economies, prioritise investments that spur decarbonisation, end fossil fuel subsidies, and resist the temptation to simply bail out carbon-intensive industries.
He called on governments to submit enhanced climate plans and Nationally-Determined Contributions (NDCs) by the end of this year, as stipulated by the UN sponsored Paris Agreement, and urged the United States and China, the world’s largest emitters, to lead the way in adopting ambitious new decabonisation plans.
“The Paris Agreement was largely made possible by the engagement of the US and China,” he said.
“Without the contribution of the big emitters, all our efforts will be doomed.”
With G20 countries collectively accounting for more than 80 per cent of global emissions and 85 per cent of the global economy, they have a responsibility to other nations, he argued.
US President Donald Trump has taken steps to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement at the close of this year, but the decision would be immediately reversed should Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden win the federal election in November.
China, meanwhile, is planning to submit an enhanced NDC, but observers remain unclear as to the level of decarbonisation ambition the to which the superpower will commit.
The UN chief’s decision to single out the US and China in his remarks followed a sobering analysis of global stimulus packages published by Vivid Economics that warns that 10 per cent of total COVID-19 rescue investment so far has gone into environmentally-intense industries, with the US and China leading the pack when it comes to fossil-fuel friendly interventions.
In his concluding statements, Mr Guterres said it was important to draw on the similarities between the coronavirus and climate crises to help drive momentum behind global climate action.
“We need to make people understand that when people say COVID and when people say climate change, we are looking at similar things: global challenges that show how fragile the world is, global challenges that show that we need global answers, global answers that are only possible in a multilateral context,” he said.
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