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Sixty-six UN participants pledge ambitious climate goals, as 30 vow to be carbon neutral by midcentury

With Trump listening in, heads of nations such as Finland and Germany promise to ban coal within a decade

World leader after world leader told the United Nations on Monday that they will do more to prevent a warming world from reaching even more dangerous levels, but as they made their pledges, they conceded it was not enough.

Sixty-six countries have promised to have more ambitious climate goals and 30 swore to be carbon neutral by midcentury, said Chilean President Sebastian Pinera Echenique, who is hosting the next climate negotiations later this year.

Heads of nations such as Finland and Germany promised to ban coal within a decade.
U.S. President Donald Trump dropped by, listened to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s detailed pledges, including going coal-free, and then left without saying anything.

Read: Amazon has ‘ambitious but achievable’ plan to hit Paris climate goals 10 years early

And even before world leaders made their promises in three-minute speeches, 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg in an emotional speech chided the leaders with the repeated phrase, “How dare you.”


“This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here,” Thunberg said. “I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you have come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.”

She told the U.N. that even the strictest emission cuts being talked about only gives the world a 50% chance of limiting future warming to another 0.4 degrees Celsius (0.72 degrees Fahrenheit) from now, which is a global goal.

“We will not let you get away with this,” Thunberg said.

“Right now is where we draw the line.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opened the Climate Action Summit by saying:

“Earth is issuing a chilling cry: Stop.”

Guterres told world leaders that it’s not a time to negotiate but to act to make the world carbon neutral by 2050. He said the world can hit its strictest temperature goal that Thunberg alluded to.

More than 60 world leaders are set to speak.

Read: Climate fight must be ‘sexy, fun and cool,’ says young minister for coal-dependent Japan

www.marketwatch.com/story/sixty-six-un-participants-pledge-ambitious-climate-goals-as-30-vow-to-be-carbon-neutral-by-midcentury-2019-09-23


Climate fight must be ‘sexy, fun and cool,’ says young minister for coal-dependent Japan

With the United Nations kicking off a conference that will include attention on the climate crisis, Japan’s 38-year-old environment minister pledged on Sunday to push his coal-dependent country toward a lower-carbon future.

Shinjiro Koizumi, who is the son of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, became the third-youngest lawmaker to join a post-World War II Japanese cabinet when current head Shinzo Abe reshuffled key appointments this month. Japanese polls show voters think the young Koizumi could be groomed to replace Abe, Reuters reported.

“We are committed to realizing a decarbonized society, and we are ready to contribute as a more powerful country in the fight against climate change,” Koizumi said, according to the Reuters report.

Japan is the only G-7 country that is adding coal-fired power capacity.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had told leaders they should only turn up to the summit if they came prepared with ambitious plans to cut carbon emissions under the Paris accord, which enters a implementation phase next year.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who pulled the nation out of the Paris treaty in part because he says compliance is not universal, made a brief appearance at Monday’s climate session.

Younger activists are the latest, or at least most-visual, leaders in the climate movement, taking cues from Sweden’s 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, to turn out for what is believed to have been the largest global climate demonstration to date last Friday.

Newly appointed Japanese Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, considered by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to be a popular rising political star.

‘In politics there are so many issues, sometimes boring.
On tackling such a big-scale issue like climate change, it’s got to be fun, it’s got to be cool.
It’s got to be sexy too.’
Shinjiro Koizumi
www.marketwatch.com/story/climate-fight-must-be-sexy-fun-and-cool-says-young-minister-for-coal-dependent-japan-2019-09-23