„We all share the risks of climate change and environmental degradation on this planet. Rising sea levels affect everyone, and increasingly fierce hurricanes do not stop at national borders. To paraphrase Martin Luther King: instability anywhere is a threat to peace and wellbeing everywhere.”
Bert Koenders, Foreign Minister of the Netherlands, giving the opening speech at the first Planetary Security Conference (The Hague, 2 November 2015).
As falling renewable energy costs and a shadow carbon price are making coal power investments unviable the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is making a decisive shift to clean energy, according to bank energy chief Yongping Zhai.
The Global Climate Action Summit has created a subtle, yet resonating effect on international climate diplomacy. Arguably, its biggest contribution lies in reaffirming the active role of the US in climate action – a refreshing sign of political maturity and environmental responsibility in Trumpian times.
Brazil’s president-elect Jair Bolsonaro has named an anti-globalist diplomat to lead foreign affairs and his country’s relationship with the Paris Agreement. Ernesto Araújo, a relatively junior diplomat, accuses the left of using the environmental cause ‘to serve their political project of total domination’
As opposed to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, India could lead a campaign for climate-responsible international development cooperation, shifting from coal to renewables domestically and promoting the values of the International Solar Alliance globally.