On Tuesday, dozens of world and business leaders, including Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, gathered in the French capital to find solutions to the swiftly warming planet.
The “One Planet” summit in Paris – led by France’s President Emmanuel Macron, as well as World Bank and United Nations – focused on practical ways to continue meeting climate goals.
The major goal of the summit was to encourage private investors to fill the annual gap of $210 billion needed to meet the requirements of the Paris agreement and how to pressure corporate giants to shift toward more climate-friendly strategies.
The summit comes two years after the landmark “COP21” conference in Paris, where 196 participating countries, including the United States, vowed to keep this century’s global temperature increase below 3.6 degrees.
But in June this year, President Donald Trump announced US withdrawal from the 2015 Paris Climate accord, saying the deal was bad for the country. The United States is now the only nation on earth to have rejected the global pact.
The Trump administration said it was not going to fulfill the US climate finance commitments, including an outstanding $2 billion out of $3 billion (€1.7 billion out of €2.5 billion) it had pledged towards the Green Climate Fund.
On the eve of the ‘One Planet’ summit, Mr Macron condemned the manner in which the US had signed an international deal and withdrew from it.
Macron said he believes Trump will bring the US back into the Paris deal but said he would not agree to the president’s demand that America’s terms should be negotiated.
In his opening remarks Tuesday, President Macron issued a stark warning on climate change, saying “We’re in the process of losing the battle” against global warming. “We’re not going quickly enough.”
The French president was not alone in condemning Trump’s decision, top international figures lined up to describe it as wrongheaded and playing politics with the planet.
Former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also criticized Trump, saying the president had taken a “politically shortsighted, economically irresponsible and scientifically wrong” decision.
On the US front, former Secretary of State John Kerry said, “Donald Trump may have pulled out of Paris, but not the American people.”
Kerry said many Americans remain “absolutely committed” to the Paris accord. He said 38 states have legislation pushing renewable energy and 90 major American cities support the agreement.
Business leader Michael Bloomberg and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, insisted the world would shift to cleaner energy and reduce emissions whether Trump and his administration agreed or not.
Bloomberg vowed to persuade more companies to change their practices, stressing the business incentives behind addressing climate change.
“Clean energy is now cheaper than coal, energy efficiency saves money and improves your bottom line, and talented people want to work for companies that care about the planet.
“Together we are going to meet the goal that this country set in Paris by reducing emissions by at least 26 percent. There isn’t anything Washington can do to stop us,” he said.
President Buhari rallies global support
President Buhari, in his submission to the gathering, said Nigeria had been strengthening its efforts towards the implementation of the Paris climate accord.
He, however, acknowledged that Nigeria could not implement its nationally determined contribution to reduce our emission by 20% by 2020 and 40% by 2030 without adequate financial, technical and capacity building support from the developed countries.
For Nigeria to respond effectively to climate change mitigation and adaptation challenges, President Buhari said the country needs critical mass of financial resources beyond what the nation can provide.
The president, therefore, appealed to the international community to support Nigeria’s commitment to reducing the negative effects of climate change.
“Nigeria recognizes that ensuring sustainable funding is a major constraint in efforts to implement the Nationally Determined Contribution,” he said.
He said Nigeria “has embraced the issuance of the green bond as an innovative and alternative source of projects funding that would help reduce emissions and provide robust climate infrastructure, such as renewable energy, low carbon transport, water infrastructure and sustainable agriculture in line with the Paris Agreement.”
Range of climate commitments
The summit secured an array of landmark commitments with flurry of pledges from companies promising to abandon fossil fuels.
More than 200 institutional investors with $26 trillion in assets under management pledged to step up pressure on the world’s biggest corporate greenhouse gas emitters to fight climate change.
The World Bank promised to stop financing upstream oil and gas projects after 2019, apart from certain gas projects in the poorest countries in exceptional circumstances.
The move, it said, was meant to help countries meet the greenhouse gas-curbing pledges they had made in support of the 2015 Paris agreement to limit global warming.
The EU External Investment Plan, climate-smart investments worth EUR €9 billion, was unveiled at the summit.
AXA, the world’s third-largest insurance company, announced further reductions of coal investments by an additional 2.4 billion euros ($2.8 billion).
The French firm also said it will pull 700 million euros from projects linked to tar sands pipeline projects, and put nine billion euros into “green” infrastructural investment through 2020.
The French Development Agency (AFD) signed agreements with a clutch of African states, including Niger and Tunisia to help them in their fight against climate change and countering the effects of erosion.
Under the agreements, 30 million euros will be set aside for 15 developing countries over four years.
Nine of Europe’s largest industrial emitters of green bonds (EDF, Enel, ENGIE, Iberdrola, Icade, Paprec, SNCF Réseau, SSE and TenneT) undertook to further develop one of the most dynamic segments of sustainable finance today, the green bond market.
Belgium said it will issue its first bond for use in financing projects to reduce the country’s carbon emissions, following a number of countries that have sold or plan to sell “green bonds”. Poland became the first a year ago, followed by France with a 7 billion euro issue in January.
French state-owned power utility EDF (EDF.PA) plans a big push into solar energy in France that is likely to cost around 25 billion euros. EDF aims to build 30 gigawatt of solar capacity by 2035 in response to a government drive for a massive deployment of renewables.
Africa, Asia get Gates Foundation’s agric funding
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Committed $300M (€255M) to help farmers in Africa and Asia cope with climate change.
The funding complements investments from the European Commission ($318M/€270M), bringing total agriculture commitments to over $600M (€525M)
The funding will support agricultural research that will help the world’s poorest farmers better adapt to increasingly challenging growing conditions brought about by climate change, including rising temperatures, extreme weather patterns (droughts and floods), diseases, poor soil fertility, and attacks from crop pests.
The Gates Foundation said its support was in direct response to the needs articulated by developing countries in their adaptation plans in three areas of crop improvement, protection and management.
The Gates Foundation and the BNP Paribas Foundation, in partnership with the Agropolis Foundation, also launched the One Planet Fellowship, a €15M 5-year programme to support 600 young African and European researchers who are working to help African farmers adapt to climate change.
Climate change campaigners hail pledges
Climate researchers and activists welcomed promises made around the summit.
Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change, said: “Today has marked another extraordinary moment in the worldwide efforts to turn the promise of the Paris Agreement into a global reality-in other words delivering a climate secure future to all corners of the earth and contributing to the sustainable future of every man, woman and child”.
Nick Mabey, Chief Executive of E3G (Third Generation Environmentalism), non-profit European organisation, said “The success of the One Planet Summit shows the world has moved past Trump and is focusing on delivering the Paris Agreement.
“The sheer amount of announcements at the Summit proves smart finance is moving out of fossil fuels and into the clean economy,” she said.
For Gyorgy Dallos, Campaigner, Greenpeace International, “The world’s financial institutions now need to take note and decide whether their financing is going to be part of the problem or the solution.”
Catherine Abreu, Executive Director, Climate Action Network Canada, said “Now attention must turn … to phasing out fossil fuel subsidies. Countries can’t adequately fund climate solutions while they continue to fund the problem.”
“The One Planet Summit in Paris, the birthplace of the agreement that offers us the best chance to save the planet, has sent a clear message to the world that countries, states, cities, businesses and civil society are firmly committed to their Paris commitments and are coming good on their promises, with or without the United States,” said Mohamed Adow, International Climate Lead, Christian Aid.
Harjeet Singh, Climate Lead, Actionaid International said, “While action by businesses is needed, governments need reminding that they can’t fix climate change by giving up their responsibilities and letting business dictate the entire climate agenda.”
