A conversation with CFigueres, the former executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, about why the Paris Accords have failed so far
Christiana Figueres. Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer. Photo: Marc Piasecki/Getty Images On September 23, the United Nations opened its Climate Action Summit here in New York, three days after the Global Climate Strike, led by Greta Thunberg, will sweep through thousands of cities worldwide.
Countries need to understand that decarbonizing is the way to enter the 21st century. It is the modernization of their energy systems, the modernization of the transport system, the modernization of their land-use policies, right? It is so ironic that climate change is so urgent and is so threatening and on the other hand, at the same time, it is the best thing that ever happened to us — pressing for climate action is the best thing that we can possibly do.
I think it boils down to focusing on the — let me call it the egotistic goal. You have to appeal to their self-centered interests, what benefits a country can accrue from responsible policy. Those doing nothing — you’re not going to win an argument with them on global need and global responsibility. But if they can at least be moved to do the things that are in their own self-interest. I think that is where you can get some movement.
There is definitely a lot more difficulty tracking the impacts, but you can do it. You see the difference in livability in cities and air quality in cities, efficiency of transport, agriculture and food productivity in rural areas, water availability in rural areas. We’re so used to looking at global data on warming, but the fact is that all of that data is local data — local and national data. And that’s what we should be looking at.
And then you have the political break on those movements, if you will. We should not lose track of the fact that there are only a few leaders really resistant to climate action — it’s not the majority. Of course there’s Brazil, the United States, Australia. But those are 3 out of 195 governments. Luckily, there are many other governments that understand that all of this.
I’m very concerned about millions of people being forced out of that whole equatorial belt — forced to migrate up either north or south to other areas that have a little bit better temperature, with the attending stress on food, on water, on just survivability.
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