*[Enwl-eng] Vladimir, read the latest Race to Zero news!

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                                UN Climate Change
                                Global Climate Action
                                16 October 2020




                                NEWSLETTER
                                Race to Zero

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                                It's Time to Change Climate Change



                                Stop the damage, start the repair. That is 
the call on everyone — from national and local government leaders, to big 
and small businesses, to individuals — in the Countdown now underway to a 
healthier, greener, thriving, more resilient, fairer and zero-emissions 
future.

                                “To those who have already joined the race, 
I applaud you. But I also ask you to do more, and much faster,” said UN 
Secretary-General António Guterres. “To those yet to join, my message is 
simple: we can only win the race together. So I urge you all to get on 
board.”

                                Countdown, driven by TED and Future 
Stewards, is about accelerating solutions to the climate crisis by both 
cutting emissions and building resilience to its impacts. It’s about urgency 
and optimism. Here’s a look at some of the big ideas and themes that emerged 
during the global launch on 10.10.20. The talks, musical performances, 
poetry readings and graphics are still available on YouTube.





                                Healthy, Human-sized Cities



                                The city of the future should converge life 
into human-sized space rather than fracturing it into “inhuman bigness”, 
said Carlos Moreno, scientific director at the Panthéon Sorbonne 
University-IAE Sorbonne Business School. The answer: a 15-minute city, where 
the rhythm follows the movement of people, not cars; each square metre 
serves many different purposes; and neighbourhoods are designed to live, 
work and thrive in without constant commuting. Paris is the first city in 
the world to adopt the 15-minute city idea, but the concept is even more 
relevant as cities recover from Covid-19, enhancing health and resilience 
and reducing travel, C40 notes.

                                The need for resilience is what drove 
Freetown Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr to “make Freetown a tree town” with a plan 
to plant 1 millon trees in the next two years, increasing vegetation cover 
by 50 percent. The Sierra Leone capital (a Race to Zero member) is under 
pressure from the expansion of informal settlements, construction and 
deforestation in recent decades. “One million trees will not fix climate 
change, but they will reduce the risk of landslides and flooding and they 
will reintroduce biodiversity … and they will protect our water catchment,” 
Aki-Sawyerr said.

                                Building healthier, more resilient cities 
also requires a transportation detox, said Monica Araya, an electrification 
advocate. More than 30 cities and regions have already set bans on 
tailpipes, mostly starting in the 2030s, and are overhauling their space in 
favour of cycling and walking. Others are cleaning their air by rolling out 
electric public transport. China already boasts 420,000 electric buses (and 
18,000 buses and 21,000 electric taxis in Shenzhen, noted engineer and 
investor John Doerr). Santiago de Chile has 455 electric buses, while Africa 
now has its first electric bus factory in Uganda, Araya added.





                                Follow the Greenshoots



                                Business, growth and development should not 
come at the expense of health, clean air, resilience, justice or equity, 
speakers stressed. In fact, it behooves the private sector to step up and 
“fix capitalism,” said Rebecca Henderson, a capitalism rethinker. “Business 
is screwed if we don’t fix climate change. It’s going to be hard to make 
money when the great coastal cities are under water and millions are 
migrating north as the harvests fail.”

                                This is the impetus driving Varun Sivaram, 
chief technology officer of India’s renewables company ReNew, to help 
reimagine an Indian economy powered by clean energy and the export of 
efficient air conditioners, electric rickshaws and other innovations. This 
requires India to add thousands of gigawatts of solar and wind (enough to 
power the US); electrify trains, scooters, rickshaws and heavy industry; and 
pursue radical efficiency. India’s big advantage: an incredible 70 percent 
of the country’s infrastructure in 2030 has yet to be built, Sivaram said.

                                Overall, businesses can grow while 
simultaneously shrinking their carbon footprint if they let go of the myths 
that sustainability comes at a premium or that purpose and profit cannot go 
hand-in-hand, said Jesper Brodin, CEO of Ingka Group (IKEA) (a Race to Zero 
member). Success isn’t a trade-off to doing the right thing either, said 
Lisa Jackson, environment and social VP of Apple. “It’s a false choice.”

                                That said, not everyone can or should follow 
the same path to zero emissions. Africa and poor nations around the world 
should be allowed to use more of the remaining carbon budget to develop too, 
said energy researcher Rose Mutiso. Rich countries, however, are 
increasingly restricting their funding in Africa to renewables, sending the 
message that developing countries must limit their development, she said.





                                The New Forest Generation



                                “Humans have an extraordinary capacity to 
set goals and strive to achieve them.” Inspired by President John F. 
Kennedy's Moonshot, Prince William argued that this next decade requires 
extraordinary ambition to tackle an even greater challenge: the Earthshot. 
The Earthshot goals seek to protect and restore nature, clean the air, 
revive oceans, build a waste-free world and fix the climate— all in the next 
decade. “It may seem overwhelming, but it is possible,” Prince William said.

                                Other Countdown contributors are already 
proving him right, showcasing breakthroughs and innovations that will help 
reach the Earthshot goals. One such innovation, Restor, is pioneering an 
open data platform for ecosystem restoration. It aims to capture up to 30 
percent of the excess carbon in the atmosphere through carefully managed 
restoration, by enabling on-the-ground practitioners to share their 
successes, failures, learnings and data, said Thomas Crowther, an ecosystem 
ecology professor.

                                Such technological improvements must come 
with an equally improved mindset, said climate and gender activist Ernestine 
Leikeki Sevidzem. Members of her local community in Cameroon have invested 
more time and money into forest conservation as a result of their bee 
farming training, but an equally important gain is their newfound 
appreciation of how protecting their local forests also protects their 
livelihoods and income. “Planting trees is essential,” Sevidzem said, “but 
we need to raise a forest generation that will thrive and live in harmony 
with nature.”





                                Count Us In!



                                Each and every person’s mindset is equally 
as important as what governments and businesses do, said Pope Francis, 
outlining three key actions that we must take to protect our planet. 
Speaking from Vatican City, he outlined the importance of greater 
comprehension of environmental problems and their links to human emissions, 
and the urgent need for safe drinking water, nutrition and the transition to 
clean energy. “The future is built today,” he said, “and it is not built in 
isolation, but rather in community and in harmony.”

                                Individuals must also play their part by 
making the planet a priority when casting their ballots across every level 
of decision-making, said filmmaker Ava Duvernay. Engaging politicians is one 
of the 16 steps the new Count Us In initiative, with a vision to mobilize 1 
billion people to reduce their carbon emissions and challenge leaders to 
“deliver bold, global change.” Aggregating data from four partner platforms 
and recording over 727,086 kg CO2e saved since launch, the initiative 
demonstrates the considerable combined power of individual action on climate 
change.

                                Mark your Calendars

                                Daring Cities 2020: This global virtual 
forum for urban leaders who are tackling the climate crisis is underway and 
continues until October 28.

                                Responsible Business Europe 2020: Reuters is 
bringing together CEOs, CSOs, CFOs, heads of sustainability and others to 
talk about how business can innovate, invest and collaborate in putting the 
clean and just transition at the heart of their post-pandemic recoveries, on 
October 22 to 26.

                                Chile 2020 Green Hydrogen Summit: The 
largest hydrogen event in Latin America, this virtual summit looks at the 
opportunities and challenges posed by hydrogen around the world. On November 
3 and 4.

                                Local Climate Solutions for Africa: ICLEI 
Africa’s virtual congress, organized with the Covenant of Mayors in 
Sub-Saharan Africa and others and co-hosted by the Rwandan government, 
Kigali and the Rwandan Association of Local Government Authorities, from 
November 3 to 12.

                                Race to Zero November Dialogues: The 
High-Level Champions and Marrakech Partnership are convening a series of 
dialogues looking at pathways to transformation, emissions reductions and 
resilience across the economy and world. From November 9 to 19.

                                Green Horizon Summit: Looking at the role of 
green finance in the Covid-19 recovery, hosted by the City of London 
Corporation and the Green Finance Institute, and supported by the World 
Economic Forum. From November 9 to 11.

                                London Climate Action Week: London’s 
cultural institutions, policymakers, professionals, communities, faith 
leaders and academics and researchers discuss solutions for the transition 
to an equitable net zero world. From November 14 to 20.

                                In Case You Missed it...

                                The poetic case for a carbon tax: Nadir 
Godrej, managing director of India’s Godrej Industries, surprised a New York 
Climate Week event by reciting a brilliant and detailed poem on the policies 
needed to cut emissions and boost clean energy. It’s well worth a watch, via 
Climate Home News.

                                Asset owners set deep decarbonization goals: 
The UN Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance, made up of 30 global investors with $5 
trillion in assets under management, announced a goal to reduce emissions by 
16-29 percent by 2025, compared to 2019. This will substantially decouple 
the asset owners’ portfolio emissions from the global economy.

                                Climate League 2030 launches in Australia: 
This new league of investors, private companies, banks and insurers is 
committed to helping Australia reduce its emissions by at least 230 million 
tonnes per year in the next decade, in line with limiting warming to 1.5°C.

                                Clean energy lessons from China, India and 
Brazil: These emerging economies were the first, fourth and sixth largest 
renewable energy producers in 2019 and now face an immense potential to 
become major clean energy innovators, according to an op-ed in The 
Conversation. With insight on India’s transition to LEDs, China’s soaring 
solar and Brazil’s biofuels success story.

                                Saudi Arabia to plant trees: Saudi Arabia is 
kicking off a campaign this month to plant 10 million trees by the end of 
2021 to reduce desertification, as part of its Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 
programme, Esquire reported.

                                Caribbean clean investment gets a boost: 
IRENA and the CARICOM Development Fund signed an initial agreement to 
provide Caribbean island states with technical and financial assistance in 
developing clean energy and reducing their reliance on fossil fuels.





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            From: Global Climate Action
            Sent: Friday, October 16, 2020 4:55 PM
            Subject: Vladimir, read the latest Race to Zero news!




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