‘2020 wordt het keerpunt voor het klimaat’

14 april 2017 – Ze staat al bekend als een ‘koppige optimist’, maar Christiana Figueres weet het zeker: het jaar 2020 kan en moet het keerpunt worden voor het klimaat. Nadat ze leiding gaf aan de Klimaattop van Parijs (2015) is ze nu de drijvende kracht achter ‘Mission 2020’ dat binnen drie jaar een keerpunt voor het klimaat wil bewerkstelligen.

Voor Christiana Figueres is ‘Mission 2020’ een logisch vervolg op de Klimaattop. Deze week was er in Londen de aftrap voor de campagne. Ze lanceerde zes mijlpalen (‘key decarbonisation goals’) die samen  de emissiecurve in slechts enkele jaren moeten ombuigen.

Uit de website Mission 2020
‘(…) The historic and legally binding Paris Agreement gave us a roadmap to address climate change once and for all. 194 nations universally adopted this agreement, committing to holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°c above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°c.
It’s necessary
It’s desirable
It’s achievable
Bending the curve of emissions by 2020 is the only way to limit global warming and ensure that the Sustainable Development Goals remain within our reach. It will also pave the way to delivering a just transition to net zero emissions by 2050. (…)
Bending the emissions curve by 2020 will be difficult. We need to intentionally accelerate financial and technological transitions. We can no longer avoid significant impacts due to the historical emissions already in the atmosphere. (…)
The evidence that a 2020 climate turning point is within our grasp is growing every day.  (…)
With radical collaboration and relentless optimism, we will make the 2020 climate turning point a reality. (…)’

Het keerpunt

Uit een bericht van Edie.net
‘(…) “This is a call to collective intentionality, just like we had intentionality for the Paris Agreement,” Figueres said. “Now we need another wave, to make sure we don’t surpass the timeframe for being the moment in which we truly bend the curve and descend emissions.
“The Paris Agreement presented climate change to an increasing array of stakeholders because we made the effort to extend the conversation. We want to take the circumference of the Paris Agreement talks and extend it. Talking to ourselves isn’t going to get it done. We need to get across that boundary and bring other people on our side.
“Bending the curve in three to four years does seem completely crazy. But the fact is, this is achievable.”

Zes mijlpalen voor 2020

Mission 2020 is vooral gericht op grootschalige investeringen

Uit het bericht van Edie.net
‘(…) The final goal of the Mission 2020 campaign calls on investors to mobilise $1trn annually for green projects. Figueres revealed that this figure currently sat at around $300bn, although it would be strengthened by the green bonds market, set to reach $200bn in value this year.
Legal & General’s Morrissey claimed that climate change was a “financial problem” and that the success of Mission 2020 would hinge on the finance sector’s ability to view climate change in a different light.
“I believe climate change is a financial problem,” Morrissey said. “Most view it as a specialist issue and not a day-to-day subject. They’re not putting their money where their mouth is. Those that do need to outperform and show them it’s a smart choice.
“Investors can either accelerate the paths to 2020 or we can hold it up. There’s so much money invested in the companies that hold the key for whether we get there in time because they are obviously not environmentally friendly. You don’t want these companies to go bankrupt, you want them to develop new technologies to help them.” (…)’

‘We can do it!’

Uit een bericht van The Ecologist
‘(…) Mission2020 is a three-pronged call to arms: peaking global emissions within the next three years is “necessary, desirable and achievable”. It’s a daunting task. Scientists insist that we must start to bend this emission curve before the next Olympic Games. But Figueres, with the zeal of an evangelist, made the case that the challenge had to be confronted head on: “Is this challenging? Absolutely it is. But we’re on our way. For the last three years we’ve seen flat global emissions while global economic growth has increased 2-3 % a year.” She listed off some of the progress already made, such as the need for 30% of global grid electricity to be renewable by 2020 and how we’re already at 23.7%, as well as some of the intimidating tasks to overcome. She said we had to end deforestation by 2020 and cited plans by the Indian Government for the country to have 100% electric vehicles by 2030. (…)’

Bronnen
Website Mission 2020
Edi.net, 11 april 2017: Christiana Figueres: Peak emissions by 2020 ‘crazy but achievable’
The Ecologist, 13 april 2017: We can do it! ‘Mission 2020’ bid to get emissions falling in three years
Foto: still uit video TED Talks met Figueres (niet over Mission 2020)