The COVID crisis can’t be a reason to take our eye off the climate ball | HE JO TYNDALL | TEDxTiESG
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h2avOwJAOw Video ID: 3h2avOwJAOw ============================================================ [Music] these days it's hard to have a conversation read or watch anything without covet 19 rearing its ugly head but for all the urgency we need to focus on the pandemic it's vitally important we don't take our eye off another ball climate change while on the face of it the two big issues are very different scratch the surface a bit and there are similarities and possibly a connection with deforestation threatening biodiversity and bringing wildlife closer to humans in the hunt for food both are global challenges that cry out for collective action we've been trying this year to flatten the covert curve to avoid health systems being overwhelmed and we also need to flatten the climate curve so the transition to low carbon doesn't become a cliff that tanks our economies neither covert nor climate change respects national boundaries but unlike the virus closing your border does precisely nothing to protect you from the impacts of climate change and unlike the virus there is no hope of a vaccine for climate change or even with a vaccine it's becoming apparent there won't be a silver bullet for cobot 19 will need a combination of vaccines therapeutics testing tracing and hand hygiene and it's the same for climate change but amplified exponentially economic transformation on a global scale needs multiple actions at multiple levels climate change in its scale and complexity knocks covert into the dust the 3ds of denial delay and despair won't help us quite the reverse they'll only serve to intensify and explode the magnitude of the challenge it's it's hard to make the mental leap from weather to climate it's hard to grasp the significance of each degree of temperature rise and photos of people frolicking in fountains undermine the severity of the crisis and it's hard to get the urgency of acting now when the impacts may seem far off in both time and geography but we have to because the impacts are already here just look at wildfires in california and australia floods in china and india heat waves in europe droughts and part of africa for examples we need to act not just because our children and their children have every right to inherit a livable planet not just because this planet is also home to countless other forms of precious life we should also act because it's in our own self-interest to do so as individuals as businesses and as governments with governments scrambling to revive economies that have taken a body blow from the pandemic stimulus spending is only intensifying current patterns of behavior if those patents already prioritize climate action it's a good trend the green strings attached to the eu's 750 billion euro recovery package is one example if they don't though the risk is another division in an already fractured world and global emissions condemned to an upright trajectory for decades to come the good news is the pieces of the puzzle are all there it's time to start fitting them together first and foremost in 2015 we got the paris agreement this was no mean feat it established long-term goals gave us global rules for being transparent and held to account and set governments on a path of continuous improvement towards those collective goals more importantly it sent a powerful political signal that encouraged businesses to factor climate change into their planning and investment decisions it catalyzed governments into policy making to deliver on national targets and in new zealand's case we've set a legislative goal for the country to be carbon neutral by 2015 we've amended our ets to to ensure price signals encourage a move to low carbon set up a green investment fund invested heavily in research into reducing emissions from livestock production and most recently made carbon-related financial disclosures mandatory for specified companies banks insurers and investment managers we've also made it our mission to encourage governments to phase out fossil fuel subsidies that create perverse incentives for excessive consumption and total around the world half a billion dollars per year there's growing evidence that transitioning to low carbon doesn't tank your economy although the uk and nordic company countries are good examples and the oecd has demonstrated that the cost of inaction is exponentially higher than any incremental cost of future proofing national investments governments now know they must also plan for a just transition so affected sectors and communities are helped into new opportunities the green shoots are there and they're growing governments are setting or re-looking at their long-term goals and most recently china is committed to achieving carbon neutrality before 2060. it's a huge effort cities are working to become carbon neutral global investors are shifting from brown to green investments and they're doing this because they can see the writing is on the not so distant wall for fossil fuels and mncs are increasingly embracing esg reporting because it makes business sense and because their investors are demanding it putting people and the planet first shifting the focus from shareholders to stakeholders puts business in pole position to succeed in an uncertain unstable world a good things are happening but the pace depth and extent of their mission still has to ramp up and all that is why we also need to change our own individual mindsets because that's where the impetus for change really starts it's like like a stone dropped into your own personal pond and the ripples spreading out from there if we each start thinking we can do it and we will do it change will happen if we make it clear in our preferences as consumers and in our expectations of the businesses we buy from or invest in change will happen we have the rules we have the tools we have the technologies and increasingly we have the will to act as we rebuild our economies our businesses and our lives let's rebuild better