Climate-vulnerable nations pledge to go 100 percent renewable

Some of the world's poorest nations announced their plan to keep climate change under 1.5 Celsius, as they urge wealthier nations to boost funding.

|
David Keyton/AP
Participants at the COP22 climate conference stage a public show of support for climate negotiations and the Paris agreement on the last day of the conference in Marrakech, Morocco, on Friday.

Close to fifty of the world’s nations that are most vulnerable to climate change, including some of the world’s poorest, have pledged they will strive to generate 100 percent of their energy from renewable energy.

In an urgent bid to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, the group of 48 nations known as the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) said in a joint communiqué from their meeting in Morocco that they would update their climate action plans in line with last year’s Paris climate agreement, and come up with low-carbon strategies before 2020.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised the CVF, which includes the Philippines, Nepal, the Maldives, Costa Rica, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Tuvalu, and Madagascar, for leading the world "towards a ... climate-resilient future."

"This is the type of bold leadership by example the world needs right now on climate change. If countries that have done the least to cause climate change can take such strong steps, so can others. We need action by all, on behalf of all," Secretary Ban said.

The move is a bold one, when some of the world’s biggest and wealthiest nations have balked at setting radical climate goals.  

Edgar Gutiérrez, Costa Rica’s environment and energy minister, whose country is aiming to be a carbon-neutral economy by 2021, said all nations should start moving toward 100 percent renewable energy and carbon neutrality, "otherwise we will all suffer."

Still, some CVF nations pointed to steep financial challenges they would face in meeting their climate targets. The $100 billion that richer countries have pledged by 2020, as part of the Paris agreement, is "a minimum that can be surpassed through concerted international collaboration," the forum said.

At the Morocco talks, some wealthier nations were unwilling to make concrete commitments to increase funding.

The lack of funding could hamper the efforts of nations like the Philippines, which obtained 45 percent of its energy from coal-fired power last year, and currently has plans for 20 new coal power plants.

However, Evelyn Cruzada, the Philippines' cabinet secretary, flagged a strong desire to see her country push forward on mitigating climate change, pointing out that two of regions on the island were already using wind energy and that solar is expanding.

"More than 1.5 degrees will destroy possibilities for a decent quality of life," she warned. "We must not build an economy based on suffering," she said.

This report contains material from Reuters.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Climate-vulnerable nations pledge to go 100 percent renewable
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2016/1118/Climate-vulnerable-nations-pledge-to-go-100-percent-renewable
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe