2014•09•23 Bonn Deutsche Welle
The one-day United Nations Climate Summit wrapped up in New York. They were held to lead up to meetings in Lima and Paris. UN climate expert Koko Warner explains the results – and what needs to happen next.
DW: You were at the climate summit in New York on Tuesday (23.09.2014), which was supposed to prepare climate negotiations scheduled for later this year in Lima, Peru, and then in Paris next year. What’s the result of the summit?
Koko Warner: Some of the top-line initiatives that were launched and discussed were a mayor’s compact to reduce emissions by up to 16 percent. We heard about forests, improving supply chains, reducing deforestation, helping half a billion farmers.
We heard oil and gas companies committing to curb methane. We heard the finance sector talking about investing $200 billion in low-carbon economies. We heard about an inspiring, Africa green clean energy corridor.
So what we saw is countries of the world coming together, putting their commitments on the table and saying: In some ways, these are things we have to do anyway, but we want to show our willingness and our commitment to fight climate change together.
Every region, every country is coming with tailored country-specific or region-specific solutions for those sets of particular climate challenges – but everybody is coming with something. There’s a great recognition, like the secretary general said, “all hands on deck.” Everything that we have is needed.
It was inspiring, but it’s not enough, from a scientific perspective. The kinds of commitments that were put on the table yesterday [23.09.2014] were not binding. They are the tip of the iceberg in terms of the ambition needed. They certainly set the trajectory in a positive direction. We need much, much more ambitious commitment moving forward in order to maintain a safe operating space for humanity.