Already in 1941, one of the UN's fathers, Franklin D. Roosevelt, called attention to the fact that peace was much more than the absence of war. He defined peace as freedom of speech, freedom of religious belief, freedom from want and freedom from fear.
Today we must admit that these freedoms are neither recognised everywhere in the world, nor even within reach. However, it is clear that there cannot be a comprehensive peace in this century if we do not take up the fight against climate change as the central challenge of our time.
Germany is therefore going ahead with determination. We have set ourselves ambitious national climate targets to be reached by 2050. By 2020 we intend to reduce emissions by 40 percent compared to 1990 levels. To meet this great challenge, we must increase our efforts even further. I will therefore present an additional set of measures before the conference in Lima. At EU level we are working hard to see that an ambitious climate and energy package for 2030 is adopted in October.
As we are here at the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Summit, I would like to point out that we also aim at formalizing our domestic efforts internationally. This is why we plan to ratify the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol in early 2015. In addition to this we intend to cancel our Kyoto Protocol emission rights to the extent to which we over-achieve our target under European legislation in the non-emission-trading-sector.
At the Paris 2015 summit we must adopt a new climate agreement containing effective steps towards keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius. It is therefore very important that by the beginning of 2015 all major CO2 emitters present ambitious national contributions for the period after 2020 on a comparable basis.
Our goal is an agreement with fixed reduction commitments that are binding for all countries. For this to succeed, the richest countries must stand by the poorer countries as partners. Germany will contribute up to 750 million euros - around one billion US dollars - to the initial financing of the Green Climate Fund. Seeing as many countries as possible contribute to a substantial initial funding before the conference in Lima would send an important signal to developing countries.
I would also like to encourage a discussion about long-term goals beyond the next commitment period. By mid-century we must almost completely decarbonise global energy production. All plans to build new coal-fired power plants must be subjected to critical review. In the field of climate and development cooperation we will no longer provide any funding for the construction of new plants. Moreover, we will finance the modernisation of coal-fired power plants currently in operation only to a limited extent and in accordance with clearly defined criteria. Germany's government is thus joining the initiative launched by several banks and industrialised countries.
Many initiatives have been launched at this summit - we are participating in the areas forest conservation, renewable energies, urban development and carbon pricing, for example - and deeds must now follow. We hope that the Secretary-General will continue to support this.
Now let's roll up our sleeves and get to work!
2019 has only just begun, but it is already hard to imagine that there will be other extreme weather events with disastrous consequences such as cyclone Idai happening again this year. In all likelihood, such events will continue to occur as 2019 rolls on. Idai is, once more, proof of how devastating and toxic the mix of climate change, extreme weather events and poverty can be: Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe – countries that rank low in human development but contribute very little to global greenhouse gas emissions – suffer from some of the worst impacts of climate change.
adelphi has relaunched its exhibition Environment, Conflict and Cooperation (ECC) Exhibition to illustrate how unprecedented environmental changes interact with social, political, and economic risks to exacerbate conflict. We invite you to explore our online exhibition and to learn more about urgent issues of our time: climate, energy, migration, extractives, food and water.
Climate security risks are, by all interpretations, a global threat. But when it comes to setting a political climate security agenda, a handful of countries stand out. In an interview with Climate Diplomacy, Michaela Spaeth, Director for Energy and Climate Policy at the German Federal Foreign Office, highlights some of Germany’s goals and challenges in forwarding the issue during its 2019-20 membership in the UN Security Council.
The Planetary Security Conference 2019, which concluded on 20 February, saw a number of workshops being held on the Sahel region and specifically Mali, one of the Conference’s three spotlight regions. These workshops examined the region’s climate-water-security risks as well as the #doable actions and solutions to address these issues.