«In any case we must move forward; the time window to limit global warming to 1.5°C is closing. And the Paris agreement has proven to be resilient, stronger than the policies of individual states”: economist Laurence Toubiana wrote on .
Toubiana’s opinion, on the eve of the UN climate conference, Cop29 in Baku, was collected, together with that of other experts and politicians, by Unclimatesummit.org, managed by Periodistas por el Planeta and ClimaInfo. Also on
Mary Robinson, former president of the Elders (an organization founded by Nelson Mandela) and former Irish prime minister, hopes that “the recent hurricanes in the United States have led President Trump to rethink his position on climate change”. Christiana Figueres, at the helm of the UNFCCC (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) from 2010 to 2016, believes that the electoral result will not stop global changes to decarbonise the economy: «Siding with oil and gas means falling behind . And communities across the planet are acting with a determined spirit.” Yao Zhe, global policy advisor at Greenpeace East Asia, recalls that the climate issue had played a role in stabilizing Sino-US relations at the time of Joe Biden and this cooperation will continue, meanwhile at the sub-national level and among non-state actors.
Raila Odinga, former prime minister of Kenya and candidate for president of the African Union Commission, wants to be optimistic: «The actions of the United States at home and globally will have a decisive impact on Africa. The negotiations in Baku are an opportunity for the US to support the trillion-dollar investments needed for the mitigation and adaptation efforts of the countries of the South and to compensate, in a timely and transparent manner, the losses and damages that the countries of the South they have suffered.” The hope of former president Joyce Banda from Malawi is similar.
«There is no room for denialism, in this emergency context; the United States is co-responsible for climate change and must be co-responsible for the solutions,” says Izabella Texeira, former Brazilian environment minister. According to the young Filipino climate activist Mitzi Jonelle Tan, “global cooperation to say goodbye to the fossil era must not be allowed to be undermined by a single leader or country” (but he is not the only one…). For Bill Hare, climate scientist and former author for the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), if Trump becomes a denier, “the main losers will be the United States”.
Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, co-president of C40 Cities (a group of 96 local governments around the world), reiterates the commitment of mayors and local leaders in the United States and around the world to protect communities and move towards environmental justice. Jennifer Morgan, who is Germany’s special envoy for global climate action, is diplomatic: «We will work with the next US administration to address challenges to global security, including the climate crisis»; it then evokes the future economic competitiveness which, for Germany and the EU, will be among the results of climate neutrality. Coded message?
