Excellencies,
I’d like to begin with a big thank you to the ENVI committee for hosting this meeting, and for opening a space where we can share our reflections on COP26 and discuss some of next year’s key environmental milestones.
We are deeply grateful for the strong bond that has developed between UNEP and the European Parliament. In this relationship I see the type of inclusive multilateralism that is absolutely fundamental to the way we tackle the planetary crises. A global, interconnected crisis like the one we face today requires a global, interconnected response. A planetary crisis requires planetary politics. And so I take enormous heart from our ability to find ways to work together, to support each other and to drive the changes we need to see.
I hardly need to lay out the urgency of the crisis. The science is alarming. To find a time when the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere changed this much this fast, you need to go back 66 million years when a meteor hit earth and wiped out the dinosaurs. The oceans are turning acidic. Arctic ice is disintegrating. Every region of the world is being hit by extreme weather events that are growing more frequent and more powerful.
And some of these changes – like continued sea level rise – are irreversible over hundreds to thousands of years. Left unchecked, the interconnected crises of climate, pollution and biodiversity loss will rapidly erode the very foundations of our societies. This really is a code red for humanity.
There is a sense that we are finally starting to heed this planetary alarm. There was some serious progress made at COP26. The pledge to stop deforestation by 2030, the Global Methane Pledge, the launch of the beyond oil and gas alliance and calls to strengthen NDCs by the end of next year to keep the 1.5C target alive – these were important steps.
But the outcome of COP26 will always be a compromise, reflecting the interests, the conditions, the contradictions and the state of political will in the world today. Important steps were made but the collective political will was still not enough to overcome the deep contradictions that stand in the way of achieving the 1.5C target set in Paris.
In fact, we’re a long way off that target. Together, formally submitted and announced NDC updates will likely heat up the world by 2.7°C by 2100. That level of heating is simply catastrophic for life as we know it. It is a temperature spike that will cause unprecedented levels of suffering.
So we now need to enter emergency mode. It is no longer good enough to make long-term pledges. In 2009, nations at that year’s COP vowed to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. More than a decade later little to nothing has been done to fulfil this promise. Long-term targets are empty promises if they aren’t backed by immediate action. And the action we need now must happen at a scale and pace unprecedented in human history. We must embark on this transformation now.
That is why I am so heartened by what I see happening in Europe. The EU’s response to the climate crisis is one of the world’s most ambitious. This was clear in Glasgow.
It was excellent to see the EU call on all G20 countries to become climate neutral by 2050 and for the scaling up of international climate finance for developing countries. The EU’s commitments at Glasgow – its efforts to increase financial flows for adaptation, to set a quantified goal on climate finance and to finally turn the page on coal and fossil fuel subsidies – means that countries in the region are keeping the 1.5C goal alive.
It is absolutely vital that this continues, that the climate leadership shown in Europe continues to pull other nations forwards, inspiring faster and deeper action around the world. Implementing the “Fit for 55” policy package will do just that – a shining example of the type of radical socio-economic transformation that is so badly needed.
I’d also like to turn for a moment to next year. A number of big events are on the horizon. In March, UNEP celebrates its 50th anniversary with a special session at the end of the UN Environment Assembly. This is a real opportunity to strengthen the vision behind UNEP’s creation – as an organization that can unify the world’s response to the gravest environmental threats of our time, where lasting coalitions can be built in ways that enhance the multilateral response to today’s global, interconnected crises.
Next year also marks the 50th anniversary of the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. This was a watershed moment when countries officially recognized the importance of the environment for human well-being. To mark the occasion, a high-level meeting will take place in Stockholm, providing an opportunity for the birth of deeper collective action, greater partnerships, and new social compacts with nature. It is our hope that the EU will engage in the preparatory process as well as at both of these seminal meetings.
The UN biodiversity conference in Kunming is also another immense opportunity to strengthen our response to the planetary crisis. It is critical that the ambitious draft framework is adopted. But as our failure to achieve the Aichi targets shows, setting targets is one thing; achieving them another. So it is crucial that we find ways to implement the framework and to hold countries accountable to their commitments.
Closing the finance gap must be a top priority at the convention. And nature-based solutions are a way of doing just that. We hope that the EU will use its leadership and expertise to persuade more countries to transform their food systems in ways that benefit the living world and enhance human well-being. We look forward to working closely with the EU in the run-up to this critical meeting.
The more we learn about the living world, the more we understand how entangled our existence is with the multitude of other lifeforms that inhabit this planet. Our success is intimately bound up in the success of others - just as one nation’s ability to confront the planetary crisis is intimately bound up in the success or failure of every other nation. We are deeply grateful that in the EU we have found a partner that understands this, that understand that by working together we are strong enough to alter the course of history in a way that enhances the well-being of current and future generations.
