EarthX Website: https://earthxmedia.com/
The road to COP26 begins with the Global Goals for Nature and Climate. Travel along as Shonagh learns the history of the Climate Treaty and questions leaders about their hopes for meaningful change.
About The Road to Glasgow:
The Road to Glasgow is a docuseries explaining the major events leading to COP26, the United Nations Climate Conference and the world's largest climate event. This series will focus on climate and biodiversity events planned throughout 2021.
EarthX
Love Our Planet.
The Official Network of Earth Day.
About Us:
At EarthX, we believe our planet is a pretty special place. The people, landscapes, and critters are likely unique to the entire universe, so we consider ourselves lucky to be here. We are committed to protecting the environment by inspiring conservation and sustainability, and our programming along with our range of expert hosts support this mission. We’re glad you’re with us.
EarthX is a media company dedicated to inspiring people to care about the planet. We take an omni channel approach to reach audiences of every age through its robust 24/7 linear channel distributed across cable and FAST outlets, along with dynamic, solution oriented short form content on social and digital platforms. EarthX is home to original series, documentaries and snackable content that offer sustainable solutions to environmental challenges. EarthX is the only network that delivers entertaining and inspiring topics that impact and inspire our lives on climate and sustainability.
EarthX Website: https://earthxmedia.com/
Follow Us:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/earthxmedia/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/earthxmedia
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EarthXMedia/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@earthxmedia
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EarthXMedia
How to watch:
United States:
- Spectrum
- AT&T U-verse (1267)
- DIRECTV (267)
- Philo
- FuboTV
- Plex
- Fire TV
#EarthDay #Environment #Sustainability #Ecofriendly #Conservation #EarthX
The road to COP26 begins with the Global Goals for Nature and Climate. Travel along as Shonagh learns the history of the Climate Treaty and questions leaders about their hopes for meaningful change.
About The Road to Glasgow:
The Road to Glasgow is a docuseries explaining the major events leading to COP26, the United Nations Climate Conference and the world's largest climate event. This series will focus on climate and biodiversity events planned throughout 2021.
EarthX
Love Our Planet.
The Official Network of Earth Day.
About Us:
At EarthX, we believe our planet is a pretty special place. The people, landscapes, and critters are likely unique to the entire universe, so we consider ourselves lucky to be here. We are committed to protecting the environment by inspiring conservation and sustainability, and our programming along with our range of expert hosts support this mission. We’re glad you’re with us.
EarthX is a media company dedicated to inspiring people to care about the planet. We take an omni channel approach to reach audiences of every age through its robust 24/7 linear channel distributed across cable and FAST outlets, along with dynamic, solution oriented short form content on social and digital platforms. EarthX is home to original series, documentaries and snackable content that offer sustainable solutions to environmental challenges. EarthX is the only network that delivers entertaining and inspiring topics that impact and inspire our lives on climate and sustainability.
EarthX Website: https://earthxmedia.com/
Follow Us:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/earthxmedia/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/earthxmedia
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EarthXMedia/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@earthxmedia
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EarthXMedia
How to watch:
United States:
- Spectrum
- AT&T U-verse (1267)
- DIRECTV (267)
- Philo
- FuboTV
- Plex
- Fire TV
#EarthDay #Environment #Sustainability #Ecofriendly #Conservation #EarthX
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00For decades, we've been told there's still time to act, to confront the problems arising
00:18from an increasingly disrupted climate.
00:21If we can only change this one thing, which could then lead to changing another thing.
00:26An incremental approach to what is now a raging fire.
00:30Well, it's a bit late to take a cup of water to a building engulfed in an inferno.
00:36The alarms have been ringing for quite some time.
00:39But who's responded?
00:41Who will be responding?
00:42We're going to find out on the road to Glasgow.
00:56Hello there, I'm Shona Smith and the United Nations Climate Change Conference is coming
01:16to my country, Scotland, at the end of 2021.
01:21The climate has been on just about every country's agenda.
01:25The United Nations created a climate treaty where the nations of the world became parties
01:30to that treaty.
01:31And every year, the nations come together with the aim of bringing about real change
01:36for the global climate.
01:38This annual meeting is a conference of the parties of the treaty known as COP.
01:43And this year will be the 26th coming together and a critical one, as the world is at a unique
01:49crossroads, coming out of a pandemic, able to reset and restart community, culture and
01:55country.
01:56And this year, it's coming to Glasgow, Scotland.
02:12There are two ways to look at the climate change problem, that the earth is there to
02:16serve you or that humans have to fit in with the world.
02:20Since way back to Roman times, unfortunately, it's primarily been the former than the latter.
02:26For most of those centuries, mankind really didn't know better.
02:30But starting in 1972, and specifically 20 years later in 1992, humans did know better.
02:38I reached out to renowned conservationist and climate change expert Harvey Locke in
02:43the beautiful Canadian Rockies to explain.
02:47In the late 1960s, the world became aware that we were starting to run into trouble
02:52with the environment, the natural world around us.
02:56And that led to a surge in public consciousness.
03:00And the first global conference on the environment was held in Stockholm in 1972.
03:05The United States passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species
03:11Act.
03:12There was a lot of energy around concern for the environment at that time.
03:17Then it kind of relaxed a little bit, and in the late 1980s, we were seeing the hole
03:22in the ozone layer, an awareness that the climate was starting to change, huge deforestation
03:28of tropical rainforests.
03:30And that, again, led to this crescendo of interest and this big global meeting in Rio
03:36de Janeiro in 1992 that was called the Rio Earth Summit.
03:40The presidents and prime ministers of all the countries in the world gathered and negotiated
03:44three global conventions or treaties.
03:48One on the climate, one for biodiversity or nature, and another on combating desertification.
03:56When we hear about the Road to Glasgow or the Glasgow Climate COP, it's an outgrowth
04:01of those 1992 Rio conventions.
04:04We've had 25 COPs, 25 meetings so far of the countries of the world, starting in Berlin
04:11in 1995, moving around the globe every year with different host countries or presidents,
04:17each with the goal to address climate change at a global level.
04:21Out of those, only a few produced solid, tangible action.
04:26Kyoto in 1997 and the Paris agreements in 2015.
04:32What went right?
04:33What went wrong?
04:34When the climate convention or the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
04:38was negotiated, they wrote the big ideas, but they didn't get down to details.
04:45The first effort to get down to details was called the Kyoto Protocol, and that is a reference
04:50to the place in Japan where the thing was negotiated in the 1990s.
04:55Later, there was a Paris agreement negotiated in Paris to replace what many people perceive
05:00as the failed Kyoto Agreement.
05:02If we look at the first one, the Kyoto Agreement, there were good things about it, but there
05:09were problems with perceptions of fairness.
05:12For example, the United States, which was the largest emitter in the world at the time
05:17of greenhouse gases, was in, and then it was out, and then it was out, out, because it
05:22also said, well, these developing countries like China and India are doing these big emissions
05:27and they don't have to do anything, and we don't think that's fair.
05:30Eventually, it just lost momentum and kind of foundered.
05:33There was an effort in a place called Copenhagen to come up with a new agreement, and it failed
05:37miserably, and it wasn't really until 2015 when actually China and the United States
05:41got together ahead of the meeting, and the French put an enormous amount of effort into
05:46making the Paris meeting work, and then everybody got together and came to an agreement that
05:52sought to limit warming to less than two degrees more, and ideally more 1.5 degrees Celsius,
06:02so that sort of became the target, and then the method for getting there became known
06:08as going to carbon neutrality or net zero carbon, the idea being by 2050, our economy
06:14has to run without having carbon dioxide emissions going into the atmosphere from anywhere more
06:20than are being absorbed by nature, so in other words, achieving an equilibrium.
06:25So Harvey, the Paris agreement had two goals.
06:28One was to limit global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels,
06:34and the other was to achieve carbon neutral by mid-century.
06:37One of the great challenges of our time is protecting nature, because it's much easier
06:43to just keep exploiting it.
06:45The idea of setting targets for how much of nature we should protect started in a serious
06:50way in the 1990s with a goal of 10 or 12% of the world, then in 2010 we realized that
06:57wasn't enough.
06:58It was increased to 17% on land and 10% in the ocean.
07:02That's very clearly not enough, and now there's a very serious conversation about protecting
07:06at least 30% of the world, land, ocean, and freshwater systems by 2030, which is a really
07:13big advance.
07:14The challenge, of course, is the science says we should be protecting about half the world
07:18in an interconnected way.
07:20So we've certainly got to meet at least 30% by 2030, but we have to go right past that
07:25to the higher number if we're really going to get this under control.
07:29The Paris agreement in 2015 works on a five-year cycle of increasingly ambitious climate action,
07:36which brings us to COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland in November of 2021.
07:42This is the crossroads where climate action needs to step up.
07:48We've come to an interesting moment in time.
07:51The science is absolutely overwhelmingly clear that our relationship with nature is completely
07:58out of balance.
07:59We're changing the climate.
08:01We're overfishing the oceans.
08:03We're destroying natural ecosystems far faster than they're being repaired.
08:07We knew this in 1972, that this could happen to us, but we had time to react.
08:14Then in 1992, when the Rio Conventions were signed, we said, now it's really time to act
08:19because we're out of time.
08:22Because if we don't act, things are going to get worse.
08:24Well, things have gotten worse and we haven't acted enough.
08:26So this year, the whole world needs to come together and say, we are going to change course.
08:32We're going to make a transformational change and we're going to create an equitable, nature-positive,
08:38carbon-neutral future so that we can look our grandkids in the eye and say, we finally
08:43acted when we had to.
08:46It may have been the last minute, but we turned this thing around for the better of all.
08:59How have countries done under these protocols and agreements?
09:02Are we seeing results?
09:03Are we moving backwards?
09:05When we come back, let's see who gets the gold stars.
09:09It might surprise you.
09:14In 1972, the climate specialists, the weather forecasters, as you might say, predicted a
09:20storm coming if things didn't change.
09:2320 years later, at the Rio Earth Summit, the predictions were made more dire.
09:29Under current emissions and consuming of nature, the storm was getting close.
09:34We had the privilege of crying out, there's still time to act.
09:38I don't think we have that privilege anymore.
09:40The storm is now upon us.
09:43In 1972, the world population was 3.8 billion.
09:47Now, in 2021, it's doubled.
09:50What was hard to accomplish as far as climate goals with 3.8 billion becomes monumental
09:56with just under 8 billion.
09:58That is why we're now in the storm.
10:01It's why we cannot say there's still time.
10:03In Getting Ready for Glasgow, there are a series of meetings around the globe to discuss
10:07the climate emergency, beginning with Harvey Locke's Global Goals for Nature and Climate.
10:13In addition, three big meetings are scheduled as we walk down the road to Glasgow, with
10:19the UN Pre-COP meeting in Milan, Italy, the Biodiversity COP in Kunming, China, and Climate
10:25Week in New York City.
10:27In March of 2021, Harvey Locke held a virtual conference on Global Goals for Nature and
10:33Climate.
10:34I asked Harvey what was his goal, his purpose, at this conference.
10:39We gathered people from all over the world on a virtual conference to discuss an exciting
10:45new idea about creating an equitable, nature-positive, carbon-neutral world.
10:52And the core idea there is to say the goals of human development, goals of fairness and
10:59equity, reducing poverty, that kind of thing, are dependent on nature.
11:06And similarly, goals for the climate are dependent on nature.
11:10And how we behave in our development goals and in our climate change mitigation efforts
11:15also affects nature.
11:17So they're all profoundly interconnected.
11:20And we wanted to explore how, taking a variety of viewpoints from all over the world, we
11:26can imagine a future where all of this comes together in a synergistic way that takes us
11:31from a period of despair towards the future of the Earth, towards a positive vision we
11:36can all get behind of this idea of an equitable, nature-positive, carbon-neutral future that
11:42can give us all hope.
11:44Heading into Glasgow in COP26, how would you grade the countries?
11:48Have we seen improvement since Rio?
11:51The scorecard, generally speaking, since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 is one of large-scale
11:57failure.
11:58The big problems of a changing climate, of an extinction crisis, of increased desertification
12:05and degradation of natural systems were clearly known in 1992 and they've all gotten substantially
12:11worse since.
12:13Having said that, there are some bright lights.
12:16For example, the Kingdom of Bhutan, a small country, a developing country in the Himalayas,
12:21has protected over half its country in an interconnected way.
12:24Costa Rica is another example of a country that's in a lot better shape now than it was
12:29in 1992.
12:30One of the acknowledged global leaders is Costa Rica, a small Latin American country
12:35with huge biological diversity.
12:38And Costa Rica added the right to a healthy environment to its constitution in the early
12:421990s.
12:43And since that time has just achieved remarkable progress on a number of fronts.
12:48They have reversed the process of deforestation.
12:50So, in 1990, they were down to about 25% forest cover.
12:54They're now over 50% forest cover.
12:56They have protected almost 30% of the lands and waters of Costa Rica.
13:01They are protecting species at risk and the right to a healthy environment is being used
13:06by communities and environmental organizations to hold the government accountable for protecting
13:12the environment.
13:13They also generate over 98% of their electricity from renewable sources of energy like solar,
13:19wind, and geothermal.
13:21They also have a carbon tax that is the revenue from which is used to pay indigenous peoples
13:26and farmers to protect and conserve forests.
13:29So, Costa Rica is a great example.
13:31We know by experience that having protected areas and having nature as part of our development
13:38model is good for the economy.
13:41It's good for our welfare.
13:43It's good for well-being at the end.
13:46And it is around this element of having nature in the heart of our development model that
13:54we have been making a lot of progress in the last 30 years.
13:59We knew that there was a lot of deforestation.
14:04And at that time, we started to make some changes at the policy level, at the regulatory
14:11level, and also with the incentives.
14:16I'm going to catch up with the President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society in
14:21New York City, Dr. Christian Samper, to further talk about the importance of nature on climate.
14:28We think conservation is a very important part of meeting the overall goals because
14:32nature-based solutions can account for about one-third of the solution to the climate crisis.
14:37So, we actually think that conserving forests and restoring ecosystems and coastal systems
14:42is a key part of the solution, which has been underplayed and underestimated so far.
14:46But when we talk about conservation, it also means about what happens around these areas.
14:50It means restoration.
14:51It means rewilding.
14:52It looks about how we develop a more holistic view of conserving the planet.
14:58How would you score the major players on biodiversity?
15:01Well, we need all the nations of the world to really come together around this.
15:05When you think about biological diversity, of course, the biodiversity tends to be in
15:08many developing countries still.
15:10I think many of them have taken very important steps and measures and really increased things
15:15like protected areas.
15:16I think that's been something really important.
15:18But to really be able to halt the destruction of these ecosystems and these places and to
15:22restore them, we also have to look at this globally and look at the supply chains and
15:27trade and the impacts of climate on this as well.
15:30I think Europe has actually made some very important steps in the last few months, really
15:34relating to climate and nature-based solutions and the conservation of biodiversity.
15:38I think that's important.
15:39China has taken some really important steps domestically.
15:42They're right now in the process of creating a national park system.
15:45We have taken very good measures relating to wildlife trade.
15:48I think that's something valuable.
15:50But I think it's going to require all of us working together to really be able to do this
15:54because it all needs to add up to something that's equivalent to the whole planet.
15:58Right. Makes sense.
15:59The challenge we have is many countries have declared protected areas but are not managing
16:03them effectively at this point.
16:05So what we need to do when we talk about the 30 by 30 is both increase the amount of areas
16:10that are protected to 30% but that 30% has to be in the right places and the right areas.
16:15Is the key to protecting these environments involving the local indigenous communities?
16:20There's no doubt that they're major, major players.
16:23These are communities that have lived in these areas for thousands of years or many generations.
16:27They understand it, they shepherd, they steward this land and they're key.
16:31There's no way we're going to reach 30 by 30 without working with local indigenous communities
16:36who after all in most cases are really great stewards of their lands.
16:39Talk is fine but the planet's climate won't improve with just meetings and conferences.
16:45We can no longer afford to kick the can down the road to Glasgow.
16:49When we come back we'll find out what needs to happen at COP26 for the sake of the planet.
16:56Dr. Sam Per mentioned China and the US and how they're doing on the conservation effort.
17:02But overall have China and the US improved over the years?
17:06If we go back to the Rio Earth Summit, China had a very large impoverished population
17:11and as such they weren't a large carbon emitter.
17:14But as their society has grown, the impoverished have become the middle class
17:19and now China is the number one carbon emitter in the world.
17:23So when we look at China, there's some interesting things coming out of there
17:27and a big concern was they hadn't committed to going to carbon neutrality
17:31until recently where they've committed by 2060 they will be a carbon neutral country.
17:36So all of this stuff has to come together and the Chinese do see the need to do this holistically
17:41and they're interested in having a conversation with the rest of the world about this eco-civilization idea.
17:46I'm not saying that China has been perfect but I am saying there's a lot going on there
17:52that's really worth the rest of the world paying attention to.
17:55And of course the next question is well what about what they do outside of China?
17:58And this is one of the great questions for all countries.
18:01We have to walk the talk at home and abroad, all of us.
18:04And so those conversations are also very active with China.
18:08And the US, how would the United States be graded on its nature and climate scorecard
18:13especially over the last 30 years?
18:16If you look at the United States as an example, you see a really interesting mixed picture.
18:22It wasn't very long before that the Cuyahoga River in Ohio was actually on fire.
18:27There were a lot of species going extinct and there was a lot of really deep concern
18:33that national symbols like the bald eagle might disappear.
18:36And that's gotten a lot better.
18:39The river quality is a lot better in the United States now than it used to be.
18:43But if you lived in West Virginia, you'd see an awful lot of mountains that have disappeared,
18:48a lot of rivers that have been polluted.
18:50What we have to do now is do more than try.
18:53We have to focus on succeeding all the time.
18:56And we have to move beyond mixed bags into a constant stream of success
19:01if we want to get ourselves out of the hole we've dug for ourselves by only succeeding sometimes.
19:07And this is why small incremental steps will no longer work as a strategy.
19:12We have to take big steps now and not just in one arena.
19:16We must look at climate and nature and develop a strategy for immediate implementation.
19:22This is what the climate experts are hoping Glasgow becomes.
19:27A milestone on the road where the storm was pushed back.
19:37COP26 comes to the UK.
19:40When the nations meet in Glasgow in November of 2021,
19:44the experts will be looking at the five years since the Paris Agreements
19:48and going forward setting more ambitious goals.
19:51But will it be enough?
19:53All the commitments from Paris would not keep the temperature change below 1.5 Celsius
19:58and carbon neutrality by 2050.
20:01I think the Paris Agreement was a very important step forward to have these commitments,
20:05but it's clear that all the voluntary commitments we're seeing don't add up to enough
20:09to the solution. Even the new commitments that are coming in are still falling short.
20:13So we need to scale up our ambition.
20:15People are frustrated. 25 COPs and the storm is happening.
20:20What needs to happen at this Conference of the Parties?
20:23What would give Glasgow COP26 high marks, the gold star?
20:29A gold star performance at COP26 would be a very focused commitment
20:35of all the countries and all the other actors that are engaged in the climate space
20:40to say, we are going to meet the 2030 goals of carbon dioxide reduction.
20:47Combined with a decision that all actions taken to either mitigate climate change,
20:53which means to prevent it in the first place, or to adapt to it,
20:58all actions will be nature positive.
21:01If we had that, we would have made a giant step forward towards the future that we need.
21:07I hope the governments of the world really come together and scale up ambition.
21:11It's clear that despite the best intentions,
21:13we're not doing enough to really tackle and solve the climate problem.
21:17So we need to scale up the ambition so that all these pledges add up to more.
21:21We need to make sure that we support the least developed countries
21:25and some of the small island developing states in this.
21:27One of the things I really hope is that the nature-based solutions to climate
21:31get a much more prominent role in this and that they get more of the finance
21:35because we are convinced that this is one of the win-win solutions.
21:39By protecting natural ecosystems, we help solve climate,
21:43we protect biodiversity and we protect local livelihoods.
21:46So it's a win-win-win. We need more of that.
21:49There's a road through this storm.
21:51And in this year, there are key moments, a key coming together of scientists
21:56activists and politicians who can carry the momentum forward all the way to Glasgow.
22:02There's simply no time left.
22:05A couple of key meetings are scheduled before we get to Glasgow.
22:09All eyes will be on Kunming, China, where the Biodiversity COP15 will be held in early fall.
22:16But before that, the leaders will be meeting for the UN's pre-COP in Milan, Italy
22:21to set the stage for how COP26 will turn out.
22:24Join us as we look into these meetings on the next Road to Glasgow.