MISSION STATEMENT
As conversations of weather occurrences and suggested anomalies become more frequent and mainstream in the scientific community, as well as at the grass-roots-level, the need to embrace and index substantive information into an authoritative conduit to encourage more research and development~~~IS IMPERATIVE.
Pertinent themes as Global Warming, Climate Change, and Melting Ice Caps has stimulated discussions, seeded forums, and spawned additional research, all to foster consensus, and recommend courses-of-action.
The intent of CLIMATE; THE CONVERSATION, is to be The Bulletin Board, The Platform, The Podium, and The Credible Source & Bibliography for such astute, sincere, and scholarly considerations.
Sincerely;
Administrators:
Andrew M. Marconi
Lou Marconi (SuiteLou0819)
Investors calling for leadership, ambitious policies on climate change
"""""Hundreds of heavyweight investors representing some $24 trillion in assets, called Thursday for stronger political leadership and more ambitious policies to finance a global transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy."""""
“We are particularly concerned that gaps, weaknesses and delays in climate change and clean-energy policies will increase the risks to our investments as a result of the physical impacts of climate change, and will increase the likelihood that more radical policy measures will be required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” the group of more than 340 institutional investors representing more in a statement issued Thursday.
“In turn, this could jeopardize the investments and retirement savings of millions of citizens.”
“This is the biggest fund managers – representing hundreds of millions of people – saying, on the 23rd of September, they are really pressing the world’s leaders to take action,” said David Pitt-Watson, chairman of the UN Environment Programme’s Finance Initiative, in a conference call with reporters.
The investor groups called on government leaders to institute carbon pricing to help redirect investment and develop plans to phase out subsidies for fossil fuels.
Their announcement marks “a true sea change in the way that investors are behaving and what it is that they’re saying,” said Pitt-Watson, who has been in fund management for 40 years. “It’s not just the planet that’s at risk here; it’s people’s savings and pensions that are at risk here if we don’t take action.”
He cited work from the International Energy Agency, which concluded this year that investments in low-carbon energy technologies must at least double – to $500 billion per year – by 2020, and then double again by 2030, to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius and thereby avoid the worst effects of climate change.
“We’re not doing anything like that,” he said, but added that such an investment is not out of reach.
“That trillion is pretty small relative to the 225 trillion that make up capital markets,” he said. “We are here at a real point of inflection — where the biggest and most powerful institutions in investment are saying we need change and are demonstrating that they can bring about some of that change.”
Only by imposing stable, meaningful prices on carbon and eliminating subsidies on carbon can governments move toward solving the problem, he said.
In their statement, the investors vowed to:
- Work with policy makers to encourage investment in climate change adaptation;
- Identify and evaluate low-carbon investment opportunities;
- Develop their capacity to assess risk and opportunity presented by climate change to investment portfolios;
- Work with companies they invest in to minimize and disclose risk and maximize the opportunities presented by climate policy;
- Report on progress they make in addressing climate risk.
The call for governments to provide stable, reliable and economically meaningful carbon pricing is a key point, said one hedge fund risk manager who was not involved in the statement, but supports it.
Every economist understands that some things are not priced, but should be, he said. Without carbon pricing, “it’s as if your neighbor were allowing his septic tank to run into your yard or, worse, collecting waste from other neighbors at a profit and then draining the effluent into your vegetable garden,” he said.
The investors also said they want to see a global agreement on climate change reached by the end of next year. “This would give investors the confidence to support and accelerate the investments in low-carbon technologies, in energy efficiency and in climate-change adaptation,” their statement said.""""""
"""""""""Efforts to reduce climate change need not come at the expense of
economic growth, according to a report issued Tuesday by the Global
Commission on the Economy and Climate, which was established last year
by a group of seven countries.
“The evidence presented in this report suggests that the low-carbon growth path can lead to as much prosperity as the high-carbon one, especially when account is taken of its multiple other benefits: from greater energy security to cleaner air and improved health,” concludes the 70-page “Better Growth Better Climate” report.
It comes after scientists have concluded — in overwhelming numbers — that climate change has already occurred and could become an existential threat unless actions are taken soon to reduce carbon emissions across the world.
“If the evidence is so clear, why have we not acted?” asked Felipe Calderon, who served as chairman of the group, which consulted with more than 100 institutions to create what he described as “one of the most comprehensive economic analyses ever done on the subject.”
“The real problem, in our opinion, is that there is a widespread perception that taking action on climate implies huge economic costs. Therefore, there is a common belief that we have to choose between economic growth or mitigating climate.”
But the commission members – 24 former heads of government and finance ministers, and leaders of businesses, cities, international organizations and research institutions — concluded that that scenario represents a false choice, the former president of Mexico told reporters at the United Nations, where the report was presented.
“After a year of hard work, we have reached a clear conclusion: Yes, it is possible to have better growth and better climate; yes, it is possible to create jobs and reduce poverty and, at the same time, reduce the carbon emissions that threaten our future.”
But, he added, doing so will require “some fundamental changes and hard choices.”
Calderon predicted that the coming 15 years will prove critical in blazing a path toward a low-carbon way of life. During that time, some $90 trillion will be invested in infrastructure for systems affecting the world’s cities, land use and energy systems.
That represents an opportunity to move toward a low-carbon infrastructure, he said.
“Given the long-lived nature of urban infrastructure, the way in which we build, rebuild, maintain and enhance the world’s growing cities will not only determine their economic performance and their citizens’ quality of life; it may also define the trajectory of global greenhouse gas emissions for much of the rest of the century, “ the report says.
It cites cities’ widely varying emissions as dependent on past infrastructure and planning decisions. For example, the carbon emissions per person from public and private transportation in Atlanta, Georgia – which is marked by urban sprawl and spotty mass transit service — are 10 times what they are in Barcelona, Spain – which is more compact and has invested heavily in mass transit.
Though world energy demands will grow by a third by 2030, those demands can be met without depending on technologies that emit high-carbon pollutants, Calderon said.
“We are not suggesting decouple economic growth from energy demands; but decouple from carbon emissions.”
The authors call for a just transition, but acknowledge that it will not be painless. “Although many jobs will be created, and there will be larger markets and profits for many businesses, some jobs will also be lost, particularly in high-carbon sectors,” they say.
Still, the transition called for is a needed one, said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is hosting the Summit. “We can no longer afford to burn our way to prosperity,” he told the commission members, whose report he applauded as timely. “We need a structural transformation in the global economy.”
Investing in economic growth and investing in preventing climate change are two sides of the same coin, Ban added. “These two agendas should be addressed simultaneously. Wise investment in climate change will surely help domestic economic growth. These go hand in hand.”
The countries that established the commission — Colombia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Norway, South Korea, Sweden and the United Kingdom – represent a wide variety of incomes.""""""""""""
This is another poignant example of how a singular initiative can become a catalyst to spearhead conscious-awareness on so many levels; in so many manifested ways, means, and venues. Parades, oratory, street-corner-handouts, rallies, social-media---all are directly asking the general public to take heed on an issue that is not going away, and the longer the lack of attention is exacerbated, will only exponentially accelerate the deterioration of the delicate-balance that exists having our atmosphere be the profound life-giving and life-sustaining existential component that it is.
Once effected and given the time and place to demonstrate this SUMMIT's cause-and-effect intentions in a positive way, its message can influence the critical-thinkers, and the power-brokers on a critical-mass larger scale. The UNITED NATIONS, with its sense of purpose and direction in terms of global influence, and inspiration lends itself to such possible considerations; as Transformational. As an international embracing organization who has always tended to be on the vanguard of so many pioneering initiatives~~~it appears that that sense of cultural clairvoyance becomes the catalyst for another Visionary Epiphany to make a course-correction in sustaining the Earth's cultural-lifestyle energy-needs with solutions not in conflict with Mother Nature, having her innate ability to keep the Mother Earth whole~~~~and Alive. The impact of this endeavor currently taking place within The United Nations should contribute favorably to the economic-scales needed to stall, and then reverse, the impacts of pollution, and its affects on the precious atmosphere so that the focus of Climate; The Conversation---makes this worthy of continued enthusiasm and consideration.
Lou Marconi (SuiteLou0819)
“The evidence presented in this report suggests that the low-carbon growth path can lead to as much prosperity as the high-carbon one, especially when account is taken of its multiple other benefits: from greater energy security to cleaner air and improved health,” concludes the 70-page “Better Growth Better Climate” report.
It comes after scientists have concluded — in overwhelming numbers — that climate change has already occurred and could become an existential threat unless actions are taken soon to reduce carbon emissions across the world.
“If the evidence is so clear, why have we not acted?” asked Felipe Calderon, who served as chairman of the group, which consulted with more than 100 institutions to create what he described as “one of the most comprehensive economic analyses ever done on the subject.”
“The real problem, in our opinion, is that there is a widespread perception that taking action on climate implies huge economic costs. Therefore, there is a common belief that we have to choose between economic growth or mitigating climate.”
But the commission members – 24 former heads of government and finance ministers, and leaders of businesses, cities, international organizations and research institutions — concluded that that scenario represents a false choice, the former president of Mexico told reporters at the United Nations, where the report was presented.
“After a year of hard work, we have reached a clear conclusion: Yes, it is possible to have better growth and better climate; yes, it is possible to create jobs and reduce poverty and, at the same time, reduce the carbon emissions that threaten our future.”
But, he added, doing so will require “some fundamental changes and hard choices.”
Calderon predicted that the coming 15 years will prove critical in blazing a path toward a low-carbon way of life. During that time, some $90 trillion will be invested in infrastructure for systems affecting the world’s cities, land use and energy systems.
That represents an opportunity to move toward a low-carbon infrastructure, he said.
“Given the long-lived nature of urban infrastructure, the way in which we build, rebuild, maintain and enhance the world’s growing cities will not only determine their economic performance and their citizens’ quality of life; it may also define the trajectory of global greenhouse gas emissions for much of the rest of the century, “ the report says.
It cites cities’ widely varying emissions as dependent on past infrastructure and planning decisions. For example, the carbon emissions per person from public and private transportation in Atlanta, Georgia – which is marked by urban sprawl and spotty mass transit service — are 10 times what they are in Barcelona, Spain – which is more compact and has invested heavily in mass transit.
Though world energy demands will grow by a third by 2030, those demands can be met without depending on technologies that emit high-carbon pollutants, Calderon said.
“We are not suggesting decouple economic growth from energy demands; but decouple from carbon emissions.”
- In all, the report makes 10 recommendations for decision makers, many of whom plan to attend the UN Climate Summit, to be held on 23 September in New York:
- Integrate climate into key economic decisions;
- Enter into a “strong, lasting and equitable” international climate agreement;
- Phase out subsidies for fossil fuels and agricultural inputs and incentives for urban sprawl;
- Introduce predictable carbon prices;
- Cut capital costs for low-carbon infrastructure investments;
- Encourage innovation in low-carbon and climate-resilient technologies;
- Encourage planners to build cities that are more connected and more densely populated;
- Halt deforestation by 2030;
- Restore at least 500 million hectares of lost or degraded forest or agricultural land by 2030;
- Move quickly to phase out polluting coal-fired power generation.
The authors call for a just transition, but acknowledge that it will not be painless. “Although many jobs will be created, and there will be larger markets and profits for many businesses, some jobs will also be lost, particularly in high-carbon sectors,” they say.
Still, the transition called for is a needed one, said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is hosting the Summit. “We can no longer afford to burn our way to prosperity,” he told the commission members, whose report he applauded as timely. “We need a structural transformation in the global economy.”
Investing in economic growth and investing in preventing climate change are two sides of the same coin, Ban added. “These two agendas should be addressed simultaneously. Wise investment in climate change will surely help domestic economic growth. These go hand in hand.”
The countries that established the commission — Colombia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Norway, South Korea, Sweden and the United Kingdom – represent a wide variety of incomes.""""""""""""
This is another poignant example of how a singular initiative can become a catalyst to spearhead conscious-awareness on so many levels; in so many manifested ways, means, and venues. Parades, oratory, street-corner-handouts, rallies, social-media---all are directly asking the general public to take heed on an issue that is not going away, and the longer the lack of attention is exacerbated, will only exponentially accelerate the deterioration of the delicate-balance that exists having our atmosphere be the profound life-giving and life-sustaining existential component that it is.
Once effected and given the time and place to demonstrate this SUMMIT's cause-and-effect intentions in a positive way, its message can influence the critical-thinkers, and the power-brokers on a critical-mass larger scale. The UNITED NATIONS, with its sense of purpose and direction in terms of global influence, and inspiration lends itself to such possible considerations; as Transformational. As an international embracing organization who has always tended to be on the vanguard of so many pioneering initiatives~~~it appears that that sense of cultural clairvoyance becomes the catalyst for another Visionary Epiphany to make a course-correction in sustaining the Earth's cultural-lifestyle energy-needs with solutions not in conflict with Mother Nature, having her innate ability to keep the Mother Earth whole~~~~and Alive. The impact of this endeavor currently taking place within The United Nations should contribute favorably to the economic-scales needed to stall, and then reverse, the impacts of pollution, and its affects on the precious atmosphere so that the focus of Climate; The Conversation---makes this worthy of continued enthusiasm and consideration.
Lou Marconi (SuiteLou0819)
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