Climate

• [New] With Europe and the United Kingdom looking to cut pollution by well over half by 2030, and the United States having already agreed to cuts of 26-28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2025, five years earlier than Australia, we are becoming increasingly isolated.
• [New] A recovery plan based on lower-carbon emissions could not only make significant emissions reductions needed to battle climate change, but also create more economic growth and jobs than a high-carbon recovery plan would.
• [New] Insulating the UK's draughty homes will save the NHS at least £2bn a year in preventable illness, and switching to electric vehicles will prevent some of the 40,000 deaths each year from air pollution.
• [New] Assessments of the impacts of climate change on global mountain systems foresee temperature warming between 1.8 and 4 °C over the European Alps for the period 2051-2080.
• [New] United Nations has allocated 100 million US dollar to help people feed themselves in countries most at risk from the growing hunger epidemic caused by conflict, economic decline, climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic.
• [New] Rising seas could cost the global economy $14.2 trillion in lost or damaged assets by the end of the century, and expose as many as 287 million people to episodic flooding, up from 171 million today.
• [New] With changing attitudes to air pollution and climate change, allied to various government deadlines (a ban on new gas car sales from 2030 in the UK is expected imminently), next year looks set to be big for the European electric car market.
• [New] Biden's plan for a clean energy revolution and environmental justice includes rejoining the Paris Agreement on climate change, investing US$ 1.7 trillion over the next decade in green energy and achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
• [New] The Blue Belt Programme makes a significant contribution to the UK-led 30 by 30 initiative, an international commitment made by the Global Ocean Alliance and launched by the UK in 2019 to protect at least 30% of the global ocean in Marine Protected Areas by 2030.
• [New] 100 cities that hold importance in national as well as global economies and are home to 350 million people are set to face the greatest rise in water risks by 2050 unless urgent action is taken to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
• [New] The EU has expressed its ambition to lead the global fight against climate change and make Europe the first climate-neutral continent on the planet by 2050.
• [New] Biden's climate-change policy commits the US to zero net emissions by 2050 and will use every tool of American foreign policy to push the rest of the world to raise their ambitions alongside the United States.
• [New] Leaders must adopt and implement a target to fully and highly protect at least 30% of the global ocean and 30% of land areas and inland waters by 2030 through effectively and equitably managed, ecologically representative, and well-connected systems of protected areas.
• [New] Encouraging more people to drive electric vehicles is a key element of the UK meeting its climate change targets and achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
• SIWI is playing a leading role in the development of the Climate Action Pathway for Water, one of ten pathways for key sectors such as Water to contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and boosting climate resilience at the pace needed to reach net-zero by 2050.
• 3.5 billion people may face water stress by 2025; already today temporary water stress has dramatically increased in Europe due to climate change and increasing demand.
• Under Biden, the United States' will rejoin the Paris agreement on climate change and the U.S. will become the latest country to commit to net-zero emissions by 2050.
• As one of the world's largest polluters, the US must take responsibility to make ambitious commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and get to net-zero no later than 2050.
• During Trump's first three years in office, the communique for the G20 summit did not include any mention of climate change, and the U.S. has not even come close to meeting its goal set at the 2015 Paris summit to reduce emissions by 26% to 28% by 2025.
• The WWF's Risk Filter analysis has said 100 cities that hold importance in national as well as global economies and are home to 350 million people are set to face the greatest rise in water risks by 2050 unless urgent action is taken to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
• Across 17 major economies, out of the $11.8 trillion global fiscal stimulus packages, around 30% will flow into sectors that have intensive impacts on the environment - whether on climate change, biodiversity or local pollution.
• The world's ability to avert catastrophic climate change could slip out of reach, if emissions do not drop sharply this decade.

Last updated: 23 November 2020