Angela Merkel addressed the world’s nations at a recent climate change summit saying: “Climate change is an issue determining our destiny as mankind – it will determine the wellbeing of all of us.”
Attendees at the summit listened to a number of moving political speeches, urging them to use their time wisely and to do whatever they can to put the Paris Deal into action. The Paris Deal was agreed upon in 2015 and might just be one of the most important decisions of the century. Without it, it is expected that global warming will see the world heat up 3 degrees Celsius – the result of which would be utterly devastating.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, spoke about his visits to the Caribbean in the wake of this year’s hurricanes. He commented on the catastrophic damage that had occurred and pinpointed climate change as one of the main causes for the disasters. He also directed his disappointment and disapproval at the $825 billion investment into fossil fuels that was made in 2016.
When Emmanuel Macron took the stage he openly criticised Trump’s decision to take the US out of the Paris Deal. But, he was met with hearty applause when he stated that France and its European partners would make sure that there would be no funding gap left by America’s departure. “They will not miss a single euro,” he said.
Macron went on to stress the importance of battling against global warming stating that “the fight against climate change is by far the most significant struggle of our times.” He also made it clear that it is up to the wealthy nations in the world to pay for the fight against climate change because it is they who are responsible for it. Climate change, he commented, adds yet another level of injustice to the world.
The French leader finished his speech with a rather unusual detail. He announced to the public that France aims to have all its coal plants closed down by 2021. He also said that there would be a ban on exploring new fossil fuels in all of its territories. These were among a number of measures he is adopting to drive out coal and gas and aim for a more sustainable future.
Angela Merkel has come under significant pressure recently to act regarding Germany’s coal-fired power stations. She acknowledged that Germany still uses a lot of coal but explained that it was important to take jobs into consideration before making any rash decisions. However, Prof John Schellnhuber, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, said that the 20,000 jobs in coal about which she was concerned would most likely be lost to mechanisation anyway.
What’s more, Schellnhuber stated that as the economy expands each year, around 600,000 new jobs would appear. This would be more than enough to compensate for coal jobs that were lost due to phasing out the power stations.
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