(CA National Observer) Meet The Young Climate Leaders Helping To Set The COP26 Agenda

National Observer - Cloe Logan

Vancouver-based youth climate activist Shakti Ramkumar is heading to Milan for the Youth4Climate summit ahead of COP26. Photo submitted by Shakti Ramkumar

In less than a week’s time, Shakti Ramkumar will be in Milan, Italy, with hundreds of other young climate leaders.

The Vancouver-based youth climate activist is set to attend the Youth4Climate: Driving Ambition meeting, which takes place Sept. 28 to 30 in advance of COP26.

Participants will form working groups and discuss proposals on climate initiatives, including ways to create jobs in renewable energy, push countries to prioritize low-carbon action, and urge the fashion industry to reduce its climate footprint. Conference results will be shared with participants and decision-makers attending COP26, and inform the negotiation process at the conference.

It’s not Ramkumar’s first climate conference (she attended COP25 in Madrid, Spain), but this meeting feels especially important. She said she has heard concerns from other attendees (she’s in a WhatsApp group with over 300 of them) about not being able to make it to the event.

Equity at COP26 has been centre stage — many worry the lack of access to COVID-19 vaccines and the expense of quarantine and travel for delegates from many countries mean the Glasgow-based event won’t be as fair or effective as it should be.

“I feel like before COVID, I would have been just like 100 per cent excited... This year, I feel 70 per cent excited, still very excited, but I also feel a bigger sense of responsibility this year than any other year, just recognizing how inequitable travelling is right now,” she said.

“And these conference spaces have always been a privileged basin because so few people can attend compared to the number of people who are advocating on the ground for these issues.”

With COP26 being called our “last hope” for meeting the world’s Paris Agreement goal, the role of youth is more important than ever. Canada’s National Observer caught up with some of the attendees and asked them for their thoughts on Youth4Climate: Driving Ambition and the larger picture of COP26.

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● 

Photo submitted by Shakti Ramkumar

Shakti Ramkumar, 25, Vancouver
Director of communications and policy at Student Energy

The UN climate conference in November is being called our “last hope” to meet our Paris Agreement targets, and the role of youth is more important than ever. Here's what attendees at the upcoming #Youth4Climate are hoping to see at #COP26.

It’s the first time a youth summit is taking place before a UN climate conference, which is important, said Ramkumar.

“(In previous years), before anyone even arrived within that space, before the youth delegations even set foot in COP, a lot of the big decisions and the parameters for the discussion (had) already been set,” she explained.

It makes this timeline exciting, she said, and leaves her hopeful that youth perspectives will be worked into the COP26 agenda — something she and other delegates believe was lacking in the past.

Coming off the heels of a federal election makes Youth4Climate: Driving Ambition all the more timely for Ramkumar, who is concerned Canada might show up at COP26 without a clear plan to meet its Paris targets. Those feelings are coupled with questions around the government needing to support youth-led climate action and provide financial support for youth in the clean energy sector.

“In the Canadian youth groups I'm tapped into, there's frustration that front-line Indigenous climate activists have not been sufficiently heard by any party during this election, and that there's still not a clear pathway to actually meeting our targets,” she said.

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Photo submitted by Louise Mabulo

Louise Mabulo, 23, Philippines
Founder of The Cacao Project
UN Young Champion of the Earth

Louise Mabulo has seen and felt the climate crisis first-hand. Intensifying storms have affected her region in the Philippines, where the country sees an average of 20 typhoons each year.

For the chef, farmer, and entrepreneur, her lived experience ties into her climate advocacy. She started The Cacao Project, which connects farmers in her home city of San Fernando with resilient, long-term, and profitable crops, such as cacao seedlings, after typhoon Nock-ten destroyed over 80 per cent of permeable land in the area in 2016.

“... I can share my own experiences as someone who has witnessed the depth and devastation of the climate crisis first-hand in my region through the intensifying typhoons which my country experiences,” she said.

When thinking about the future of youth and climate conferences, Mabulo hopes there is an opportunity to expand ongoing dialogues, discussions, and working groups with youth year-round through the UN.

“... It is only natural that there is too much ground to cover on a topic as expansive as climate in a yearly event,” she said.

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Photo submitted by Jhannel Tomlinson

Jhannel Tomlinson, 29, Jamaica
Co-founder of GirlsCARE

The event will serve as a place where young people can share their experiences, as well as climate goals they’d like to see reached, explained Jhannel Tomlinson, who served as the Jamaican youth delegate both for COP24 in Poland and COP25 in Madrid.

The 29-year-old is a PhD candidate in the department of geography and geology at the University of the West Indies whose work has focused on climate change adaptation in rural Jamaican communities. She sees the event as a vital way to bridge the gap between children and decision-makers.

“The young people of tomorrow will inherit a world that they didn’t create,” she said.

“Being the generation closest to them, it is important for us as youth to be able to advocate for the protection of the Earth, the conservation of resources, environmental justice for the vulnerable, and for economies that are less premised on extractive industries.”

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Photo submitted by Nisreen Elsaim

Nisreen Elsaim, 26, Sudan
Chair of the UN Secretary General's Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change
Chair of the Sudan Youth Organization on Climate Change

When Nisreen Elsaim talks about what she wants to see come from the Youth4Climate meeting, as well as COP26, she says “intergenerational justice” is key.

“We are talking about climate impacts that will actually affect people, young people specifically, 20 years later, 15 years later, 10 years later,” she said.

“Even now, a lot of young people around the world are impacted by climate change.”

Elsaim hopes concrete plans to cut back on emissions and support communities dealing with climate change come out of the youth-focused event. She also wants to see a shift in the climate change movement towards taking young people seriously.

“They should not also be treated as a decoration ... we have our knowledge, we (are) professional, we should get invited to different events,” she said.

“(It should be) according to that, to what we can actually add to the event, not just to make it more diverse or just say that they have youth representation.”

Links

• (Reuters) World's Youth Take To The Streets Again To Battle Climate Change
• (The Guardian) Young Global Climate Strikers Vow Change Is Coming – From The Streets
• A Year Of Resistance: How Youth Protests Shaped The Discussion On Climate Change
• Young people resume global climate strikes calling for urgent action
• Young climate activists call for EU to radically reform farming sector
• School climate strikers join Valentine's Day protests across world
• Hundreds of thousands of students join global climate strikes
• (AU ABC) School Strike 4 Climate: Thousands Of Young Australians Call For Urgent Action On Climate Change
• Greta Thunberg Effect: People Familiar With Young Climate Activist May Be More Likely To Act
• ‘Hypocrites And Greenwash’: Greta Thunberg Blasts Leaders Over Climate Crisis
• Another Two Years Lost To Climate Inaction, Says Greta Thunberg

(Reuters) World's Youth Take To The Streets Again To Battle Climate Change

Reuters - Kate Abnett

Summary Largest global climate protest since pandemic Strike takes place weeks before COP26 summit Hundreds of thousands protest in Germany alone, organisers say 'No political party is doing close to enough', Thunberg says

BRUSSELS - Young people around the world took to the streets on Friday to demand urgent action to avert disastrous climate change, in their largest protest since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The strike takes place five weeks before the U.N. COP26 summit, which aims to secure more ambitious climate action from world leaders to drastically cut the greenhouse gas emissions heating the planet.

"The concentration of CO2 in the sky hasn't been this high for at least 3 million years," Swedish activist Greta Thunberg told a crowd of thousands of protesters in the German capital.

"It is clearer than ever that no political party is doing close to enough."

Demonstrations were planned in more than 1,500 locations by youth movement Fridays for Future, kicking off in Asia with small-scale demonstrations in the Philippines and Bangladesh, and spreading throughout the day to European cities including Warsaw, Turin and Berlin.

"Everyone is talking about making promises, but nobody keeps their promise. We want more action," said Farzana Faruk Jhumu, 22, a youth climate activist in Dhaka, Bangladesh. "We want the work, not just the promises."

A landmark U.N. climate science report in August warned that human activity has already locked in climate disruptions for decades - but that rapid, large-scale action to reduce emissions could still stave off some of the most destructive impacts. read more

So far, governments do not plan to cut emissions anywhere near fast enough to do that.

Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg attends the Global Climate Strike of the movement Fridays for Future in Berlin, Germany, September 24, 2021. REUTERS/Christian Mang
More images: 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

The United Nations said last week that countries' commitments would see global emissions increase to be 16% higher in 2030 than they were in 2010 - far off the 45% reduction by 2030 needed to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

"We are here because we are saying a loud 'no' to what is happening in Poland," said Dominika Lasota, 19, a youth activist at a protest in Warsaw, Poland. "Our government has for years been blocking any sort of climate politics and ignores our demands for a safe future."

Friday's strike marked the in-person return of the youth climate protests that in 2019 drew more than six million people onto the streets, before the COVID-19 pandemic largely halted the mass gatherings and pushed much of the action online.

Yusuf Baluch, 17, a youth activist in the Pakistani province of Balochistan, said the return to in-person events was vital to force leaders to tackle the planetary crisis.

"Last time it was digital and nobody was paying attention to us," he said.

But with access to COVID-19 vaccines still highly uneven around the world, activists in some poorer countries said they would only hold symbolic actions with only a handful of people.

"In the global north, people are getting vaccinated so they might be out in huge quantities. But in the global south, we are still limited," Baluch said.>

The world's youth take to the streets in #FridaysForFuture protests to demand urgent action to avert climate change, in their largest protest since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. More photos: https://t.co/xBTVe4Yz9D pic.twitter.com/QVVPWvqXrf

— Reuters Pictures (@reuterspictures) September 24, 2021

Links

• (The Guardian) Young Global Climate Strikers Vow Change Is Coming – From The Streets
• (CA National Observer) Meet The Young Climate Leaders Helping To Set The COP26 Agenda
• A Year Of Resistance: How Youth Protests Shaped The Discussion On Climate Change
• Young people resume global climate strikes calling for urgent action
• Young climate activists call for EU to radically reform farming sector
• School climate strikers join Valentine's Day protests across world
• Hundreds of thousands of students join global climate strikes
• (AU ABC) School Strike 4 Climate: Thousands Of Young Australians Call For Urgent Action On Climate Change
• Greta Thunberg Effect: People Familiar With Young Climate Activist May Be More Likely To Act
• ‘Hypocrites And Greenwash’: Greta Thunberg Blasts Leaders Over Climate Crisis
• Another Two Years Lost To Climate Inaction, Says Greta Thunberg
• U.N. climate change report sounds 'code red for humanity'

Fridays For Future Global Climate Strike – In Pictures

The Guardian

Activists marched on cities around the world to demand action on climate change before Cop26 in Glasgow

Greta Thunberg, centre, and the German climate activist Luisa Neubauer (centre left) attend the march in Berlin. Photograph: Filip Singer/EPA

Fridays for Future movement at Kadikoy district of Istanbul. Photograph: Ozan Köse/AFP/Getty Images

Young activists make their feelings known in London. Photograph: David Cliff/AP

Czech protestors take to the streets of Prague. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

A young woman holds up a poster while taking part in the climate strike in Lisbon, Portugal. Photograph: Armando Franca/AP

The Red Rebels performance group join hundreds of people taking part in a global climate protest in Cape Town, South Africa. Photograph: Rodger Bosch/AFP/Getty

Polish students demonstrate in Warsaw. Photograph: Kacper Pempel/Reuters

The demonstration in Glasgow was echoed in Stirling, Ullapool and a rally outside the Scottish parliament. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty

People take part in the Fridays for Future protest in Berlin, Germany. Photograph: Christian Mang/Reuters

The message from Glasgow, Scotland. Photograph: Ewan Bootman/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock

Banners in Warsaw, Poland. Photograph: Radek Pietruszka/EPA

Students in Rome play out a protest. Photograph: Antonio Masiello/Getty

Activists march through Westminster, London, to demand politicians act on climate change promises. Photograph: David Cliff/AP

An environmental activist puts a banner on a police barricade during the Fridays for Future strike in New Delhi, India. Photograph: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images

Students call for action against climate change in Rome, Italy. Photograph: Antonio Masiello/Getty

People sit on a bench next to a banner in Bristol, UK. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA

Indian activists take part in the climate strike in Kolkata, India. Photograph: Piyal Adhikary/EPA

Protesters in Naples, Italy. Photograph: Cesare Abbate/EPA

A balloon resembling the CDU party chairman, Armin Laschet, flies in front of the chancellery in Berlin. Photograph: Clemens Bilan/EPA

Austrian students take to the streets in Vienna. Photograph: Leonhard Föger/Reuters

Greta Thunberg speaks in front of the Reichstag in Berlin. Photograph: Maja Hitij/Getty

Links

• (Reuters) World's Youth Take To The Streets Again To Battle Climate Change
• (The Guardian) Young Global Climate Strikers Vow Change Is Coming – From The Streets
• (CA National Observer) Meet The Young Climate Leaders Helping To Set The COP26 Agenda
• A Year Of Resistance: How Youth Protests Shaped The Discussion On Climate Change
• Young people resume global climate strikes calling for urgent action
• Young climate activists call for EU to radically reform farming sector
• School climate strikers join Valentine's Day protests across world
• Hundreds of thousands of students join global climate strikes
• (AU ABC) School Strike 4 Climate: Thousands Of Young Australians Call For Urgent Action On Climate Change
• Greta Thunberg Effect: People Familiar With Young Climate Activist May Be More Likely To Act
• ‘Hypocrites And Greenwash’: Greta Thunberg Blasts Leaders Over Climate Crisis
• Another Two Years Lost To Climate Inaction, Says Greta Thunberg

(The Guardian) Young Global Climate Strikers Vow Change Is Coming – From The Streets

The Guardian - Damian Carrington

Mass youth protests to hit more than 1,400 locations weeks before Cop26 climate summit

People attend a global climate rally in Mexico City in 2019. This year’s protests will be the first since the Covid crisis. Photograph: Carlos Jasso/Reuters

A global climate strike by youth protesters on Friday hit more than 1,400 locations with a message that “change is coming – from the streets”.

The strike is the first such worldwide action since the coronavirus pandemic hit, and is taking place just weeks before the vital Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, UK.

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said on Tuesday the world was “seemingly light years away from reaching our targets”.

The youth strikes, along with the increasingly severe impacts of extreme weather, have been credited with raising the profile of the climate emergency.

In Germany, two days before the general election, mass protests are planned in 420 towns and cities, and Greta Thunberg will address protesters in front of the Bundestag in Berlin.

“It has been a strange year and a half with the pandemic, but the climate crisis is even more urgent than it was before,” said Thunberg, whose solo strike in 2018 inspired the global Fridays for Future movement. “We will go back on the streets now to show that we have not disappeared and that we are demanding climate action and climate justice.”

Luisa Neubauer, from Fridays For Future in Germany, said: “Change is going to come but it is going to come from the streets. We will make sure that this message is out there on the 24th.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said the world’s carbon emissions must fall by half by 2030 to keep global heating below 1.5C, the limit countries agreed to strive for in 2015 in Paris.

But the UN reported on 17 September that current pledges from countries would lead to a 16% rise in the next decade.

There have been some positive moves in recent days, with China saying it will end its financing for highly polluting coal-fired power stations abroad – though not at home – and the US doubling its climate finance to vulnerable nations. This funding helps rich countries move towards delivery of the $100bn a year promised a decade ago, which is seen as critical for the success of COP26.

But Vanessa Nakate, a youth striker from the Rise Up Movement in Uganda, said: “The $100bn is the first step to correcting climate injustice. It was like countries finally looked up and saw the suffering and devastation that was going on in countries like mine because of the climate crisis. The most disturbing thing about this, though, is that it has not been delivered.”

Protesters in Mexico will assemble in front of the National Palace in Mexico City to demand that the state oil company Pemex presents a plan to decarbonise, while in Bangladesh activists will demand the scrapping of planned new coal and gas power stations.

Demonstrations will also take place in 12 cities in South Africa, 64 towns and cities in Canada, at least 12 cities in Argentina, and in many other places.

“The global north should be developing climate policies that have at their core climate justice and accountability to the most affected people and areas,” said Valentina Ruas, from Brazil. “Instead, they continue to exploit vulnerable communities and recklessly extract fossil fuel, while bragging about their insignificant emission reduction plans.”

The UK is the host of Cop26 and, in Parliament Square in London on Friday youth protesters will be joined by trade unions and environmental groups.

Elijah Mckenzie-Jackson said: “We know that another world is possible. Our government has the solutions and it has the money yet it is actively choosing not to act on climate but to prioritise the will of fossil fuel lobbyists.”

Parent climate activists are also supporting the youth strikers. Ana Ancines, from Parents For Future Colombia, said: “All parents need to unite to guarantee the young generation’s future. In Latin America, we have to defend the Amazon, our natural reserves and water. I’m concerned about my kids and your kids’ future and this is why we are joining young climate activists.”

Links

• A Year Of Resistance: How Youth Protests Shaped The Discussion On Climate Change
• Young people resume global climate strikes calling for urgent action
• Young climate activists call for EU to radically reform farming sector
• School climate strikers join Valentine's Day protests across world
• Hundreds of thousands of students join global climate strikes
• (AU ABC) School Strike 4 Climate: Thousands Of Young Australians Call For Urgent Action On Climate Change
• Greta Thunberg Effect: People Familiar With Young Climate Activist May Be More Likely To Act
• ‘Hypocrites And Greenwash’: Greta Thunberg Blasts Leaders Over Climate Crisis
• Another Two Years Lost To Climate Inaction, Says Greta Thunberg

(UK BBC) Boris Johnson: Humanity Is Reaching A Turning Point On Climate Change

BBC - Dulcie Lee | Marie Jackson

A climate summit of world leaders in 40 days' time will be the "turning point for humanity", PM Boris Johnson has said in a speech to the United Nations.

He warned that global temperature rises were already inevitable, but called on his fellow leaders to commit to major changes to curb further warming.

Four areas needed tackling - "coal, cars, cash and trees", he said.

Countries must take responsibility for "the destruction we are inflicting, not just upon our planet but ourselves".

"It's time for humanity to grow up," he added ahead of the UK hosting the COP26 summit in Glasgow.

The prime minister also said it was time to listen to the warnings of scientists. "Look at Covid if you want an example of gloomy scientists being proved right."

Setting the tone for November's meeting, he said countries must make "substantial changes" by the end of the decade if the world is to stave off further temperature rises.

"I passionately believe that we can do it by making commitments in four areas - coal, cars, cash and trees," he said.

Mr Johnson praised China's President Xi Jinping for his recent pledge to stop building new coal-fire energy plants abroad.

But he called on the country - which produces 28% of global greenhouse gas emissions - to go further and end its domestic use of coal, saying the UK was proof that it could be done.

The UK used coal to generate 25% of its electricity five years ago - but that is now down to 2%. Mr Johnson said it would be "gone altogether" by 2024.

But Labour's shadow energy secretary Ed Miliband accused the UK government of "facing both ways" on climate change, urging other nations to take action while it considered plans for a new coal mine in Cumbria and cut money for improving home insulation.

He told BBC Radio 4's World at One that a UK trade deal had also allowed Australia to renege on their climate commitments.

"It undermines our moral standing as the host. I want the prime minister to succeed, but I'm afraid he's left it very late and he's not handled this presidency well," he said.

In his speech, the prime minister also said he did not see a conflict between the green movement and capitalism, saying: "The whole experience of the Covid pandemic is that the way to fix the problem is through science and innovation, the breakthroughs and the investment that are made possible by capitalism and by free markets."

"We have the tools for a green industrial revolution but time is desperately short," he added.

Elsewhere, the prime minister made a series of calls for action to his fellow leaders, including:

• to allow only zero-emission vehicles to be on sale across the world by 2040
• for every country to cut carbon emissions by 68% by 2030, compared to levels in 1990
• to pledge collectively to achieve carbon neutrality - or net zero - by the middle of the century
• to end the use of coal power in the developing world by 2040 and in the developed world by 2030
• to halt and reverse the loss of trees and biodiversity by 2030.

Amid the serious warnings, Mr Johnson also attempted to strike a humorous note at points, including saying Kermit the Frog had been wrong when he sang It's Not Easy Bein' Green.

'We missed our cue'

The prime minister reiterated that the world must curb the rise in global average temperatures to 1.5C - the stricter of the two targets set by the UN in the 2015 Paris agreement.

However, the world is already 1C hotter compared with pre-industrial levels.

"If we keep on the current track then the temperatures will go up by 2.7 degrees or more by the end of the century," Mr Johnson said.

"And never mind what that will do to the ice floes... we will see desertification, drought, crop failure, and mass movements of humanity on a scale not seen before, not because of some unforeseen natural event or disaster but because of us, because of what we are doing now.

"And our grandchildren will know that we are the culprits and... that we were warned and they will know that it was this generation that came centre stage to speak and act on behalf of posterity and that we missed our cue and they will ask themselves what kind of people we were to be so selfish and so short sighted.

---

ANALYSIS
Roger Harrabin, Environment Analyst

Boris Johnson is fashioning himself as a leader on climate change.

He has set a benchmark by phasing out sales of most new conventional vehicles by 2030.

The international alliance he's formed to get rid of coal power is gathering support - though not yet enough.

And by setting aggressive targets to cut carbon emissions overall (78% by 2035) he is encouraging others to follow.

Yet, in his own backyard, the prime minister is stumbling.

He previously pledged "never to be lagging on lagging". But his plan for insulating homes is badly delayed - along with other vital initiatives on issues including aviation, farming and financing the low carbon revolution.

Recent research showed his government had imposed less than a quarter of the policies needed to clean up the economy.

And some policies - like not opposing a coal mine in Cumbria,cutting taxes on flying and building HS2 - will send emissions up when they are supposed to be going down.

---

At COP26, leaders from 196 countries will be asked to agree action to limit climate change and its effects, like rising sea levels and extreme weather.

A recent report from UN scientists warned that global temperatures have risen faster since 1970 than at any point in the past 2,000 years.

Links

• Boris Johnson tells humanity to 'grow up' to tackle climate change
• Boris Johnson rebukes world leaders on climate change and warns history will judge them
• When Boris Johnson turned green
• Boris Johnson at the UN fact-checked
• What do world leaders need to agree to stop climate change?
• World on course to heat up to dangerous levels

(AU The Diplomat) Australia’s Reluctant Climate Change Diplomacy

The Diplomat - Philip Citowicki

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison signs the Pentagon guest book before a bilateral meeting with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, Washington, D.C., Sept. 22, 2021. Credit: DoD photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Brittany A. Chase

As someone with a history of quoting American presidents, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison would recognize Reagan’s famous line, “You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.”

Author Philip Citowicki was an advisor to former Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and a former political aide to Australia’s high commissioner to the United Kingdom.

But what exactly is destiny for Morrison?

If it is to be a triumphant re-election in 2022, he must confront an unavoidable geopolitical issue that has played a role in felling numerous prime ministers past.

Over the past decade, climate change and energy policy have played a decisive role in Australian political futures. As result, it has largely remained a muddied and carefully managed political matter.

But with a federal election over the horizon, Morrison and his diplomats must navigate a series of international gatherings that risk awaking the proverbial kraken of Australian politics.

It’s widely acknowledged that a lack of greater commitment on climate change will risk further undermining Australia’s international reputation, already significantly tainted by a perception of inaction. However, while many Australians favor greater action on climate change, those fervently opposed continue to threaten the stability of the federal government.

As a country that proudly positions itself a middle-power, Australia stands increasingly isolated on the international stage on this matter – CNN went as far a calling Australia as the possible “villain” of COP26, the U.N. climate conference scheduled for November.

Any space provided by the previous Trump administration for Australia to abscond from responsibility has rapidly disappeared under new President Joe Biden.

The delicate dance has already begun, with the AUSMIN Joint Statement from September 16 showing a significant degree of conversation on climate change. The sidelines of this month’s United Nations General Assembly will also be used to build climate change consensus.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres co-hosted a climate change conference on September 22 involving China, the EU, India, and the U.S., among others.

Australia was not invited to the meeting, at which Johnson accused “too many major economic” of “lagging too far behind” on climate action.

From there, things will only get trickier for Australia. On September 24, Morrison will have to navigate the first-ever Quad Leaders Summit at the White House. This is a significant gathering where the outcomes will be monitored around the world.

In their press release, the White House singled out climate change as a key discussion point, a point that was contrastingly omitted from Morrison’s statement confirming the Quad meeting.

Even the momentous new defense pact, AUKUS, which is based on technology sharing between the U.S., U.K., and Australia may not be directly related to climate change but can’t be unpacked from it either. AUKUS will require Australia, the U.K., and U.S. to be collectively singing from the same hymn sheet on a variety of future issues, including the climate crisis.

Australia will stand naked on the international stage if it doesn’t make some concessions, but as one door closes, another may open. Global appetite for substantive climate reform remains plagued by diverging domestic political ambitions around the world, not just in Australia.

COVID-19 has exacerbated the dividing lines between developed and developing countries, compounded by asymmetric economic recoveries and the unequal and lethargic distribution of vaccinations.

Further, it’s increasingly unlikely that the United States and China will be able to isolate climate change as a matter for cooperation.

U.S. Climate Special Envoy John Kerry has struggled to make any substantial breakthroughs with China and neither the U.S. or China will sacrifice their less environmentally friendly domestic industries on the alter of climate change at the cost of both domestic political blowback and the odds that the other will do the same.

All this means that Australia may well again find the space to hide amongst the multilateral ordeal the lead-up to COP26 will likely be.

A master of shaping the political narrative, the Morrison government would be wise to adopt the policy narrative that Biden administration took with the appointment of John Kerry – one of national security.

As the special envoy for climate change, Kerry became the first person solely focused on climate on the National Security Council, marking the issue as central to the national security of the United States and its broader geopolitical strategy. This can soften a vital political transition to great climate change commitment for the government.

This year’s AUSMIN Statement showed some steps being taken to deepen climate coordination through this lens. It included a statement “acknowledging the global security threat posed by climate change” and stated that the U.S. Department of Defense will share its Defense Climate Assessment Tool with Australia.

Domestic political considerations will dictate Australia’s policy footing at COP26. Navigating the litany of international meetings and summits ahead is a challenge that stands between Morrison and what he wants to be his destiny.

Links

• (AU The Conversation) Grattan On Friday: Morrison Is Wedged Between Biden And Barnaby In Forging Climate Policy For Glasgow
• (AU The Guardian) German Ambassador Joins Calls For Morrison Government To Take More Ambitious Climate Action
• (AU The Guardian) Think Morrison Was Wrong About Electric Cars And Weekends? Wait Till You Hear Him On Emissions
• (AU The Guardian) Having Spent A Decade Framing Emissions Reduction In Apocalyptic Terms, The Coalition Now Has To Present Different Facts
• (SMH) Crunch Time Looming For Morrison On Climate As The World Looks To Australia To Act
• (AU The Guardian) Net Zero By 2050? Over Our Dead Body, Bolshie Nationals Tell Scott Morrison

(National Geographic) Jane Goodall Joins Campaign To Plant A Trillion Trees By 2030

National Geographic - Michael Shapiro

Trees for Jane will support efforts underway, mostly in the developing world, to replenish the earth's trees.

British primatologist Jane Goodall walks at the CosmoCaixa science museum in Barcelona, Spain, in 2018. Photograph by Enric Fontcuberta, EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Jane Goodall, the renowned primatologist, is launching Trees for Jane on Tuesday, joining a global campaign to combat climate change by planting a trillion trees by 2030.

Goodall, a longtime National Geographic Explorer, made it clear that planting is just one aspect of Trees for Jane; there’s something even more important. “The key is protecting existing forest because those big trees already have stored CO2,” she said in a National Geographic interview.

Trees for Jane is one of a growing number of tree-planting campaigns around the world, aimed at removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Among others, Goodall’s effort joins the Trillion Tree Campaign and 1t.org, backed by the World Economic Forum and partnering with Trees for Jane.

Goodall, a United Nations Messenger of Peace, feels a strong “spiritual connection” to trees, she said in a Zoom conversation from her family home in southern England. “Trees absorb carbon dioxide. They give us oxygen. They help to make rain. So they are a gift.”

In A Trillion Trees, a short film being released during the UN’s Climate Action Week, which started on Monday, Goodall calls trees “God’s gift to humanity.” The number of trees Trillion Trees Campaign, 1t.org, and Trees for Jane seek to plant or preserve is staggering: 128 trees for every human on Earth.

Yet there’s a reason for that goal, Goodall said. The world now contains roughly three trillion trees, and the planet loses 15 billion trees a year, according to a 2015 mapping study in the journal Nature.

“I know that a trillion sounds like an insane number,” said Jeff Horowitz, Trees for Jane’s co-founder. “We’re not saying flat out that we’ll be able to succeed, but we want to come as close as we can.”

Supporting existing efforts

Trees for Jane will support “existing on-the-ground efforts” to protect and restore our planet’s biodiversity, Horowitz said. “Right out of the chute, we'll probably have 300 to 400 groups ready to go when it comes to planting trees for Jane. Shovels ready, trees in the ground on day one.”

Donations to Trees for Jane will support local groups working to stop deforestation, he said. And those who plant are asked to agree to care for the trees and monitor them until they’re established.

Forest preservation and tree planting are among natural climate solutions that together could provide up to one-third of the mitigation needed by 2030 to “avoid catastrophic warming,” said Susan Cook-Patton, senior forest restoration scientist for The Nature Conservancy. “We don’t always need to plant trees. When conditions are right, trees can grow back perfectly well on their own at a fraction of the cost.”

Of course, tree planting is not a substitute for reducing emissions, Cook-Patton said. “The most important action is to reduce fossil fuel emissions. However, even if we rapidly reduce emissions, we’re still going to need to remove carbon from the atmosphere to prevent catastrophic warming. That’s why carbon removal strategies like re-growing trees remain important.”

Some tree-planting efforts have come under fire from some scientists as being ineffective and counterproductive, since many programs don’t plant native species, essentially creating tree farms, not helping forests.

Cook-Patton’s message is clear: “Plant the right trees, in the right places, in the right way.” This means planting native trees where they historically lived. Goodall said this aligns precisely with the mission of Trees for Jane.

The U.N. warned last Friday that the world isn’t doing nearly enough to curb climate-changing emissions and is predicted to warm by a “catastrophic” 4.9 degrees Fahrenheit [2.7 degrees Celsius].

Advancing a movement

Tree planting to help the environment isn’t a new concept; it advanced in the 1970s when Kenyan activist Wangari Muta Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement. The group organized local women to plant a million trees as part of a broader environmental restoration effort in Kenya. Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, showed how tree planting could improve local ecosystems and empower communities by giving them new sources of income.

Trees for Jane seeks to build on that model and will work with communities in Africa and throughout the developing world. The TACARE program in Tanzania, supported by the Jane Goodall Institute, works to preserve the Gombe forest where Goodall studied chimpanzees. It’s one of many groups ready to work with Trees for Jane, Goodall said.

Re-greening urban centers is also part of the Trees for Jane plan. This could help take the heat off cities, said Ellie Cohen, CEO of The Climate Center, a California-based policy-action group. “Tree planting in urban areas with appropriate species can have benefits in addition to sequestering carbon, particularly in mitigating the heat-island effect,” she said.

“Study after study has shown that the poorest neighborhoods have the least amount of cooling vegetation. So tree planting in those areas can be essential to the survival of our communities.”

Goodall, noting that Trees for Jane encourages people to plant trees themselves or donate to support global efforts, said her love for trees dates back to her childhood. “Out there in the garden is Beech,” she said of the beech tree she could see through the window of the home where she grew up, and where she is now living.

“When I was a child, I loved Beech so much. I did my homework up there. I read books up there. I went to the tree when I was sad. When I was ten, I wrote out my own version of a will,” Goodall said. It stated that her grandmother, who owned the house, would leave Jane her favorite tree. “She signed it and left me Beech.”

Nearly eight decades later, Goodall is working tirelessly to share the gift of trees with the entire world, for the sake of the planet.

Links

• Trees for Jane Campaign
• Trillion Tree Campaig
• Conserving, restoring and growing 1 trillion trees by 2030
• Planting 1 trillion trees might not actually be a good idea 
• Are Huge Tree Planting Projects More Hype than Solution?
• Mapping tree density at a global scale
• Tree-planting programs can do more harm than good
• Planting trees helps fight climate change—but we need billions more seedlings