Global push urged for COVID-19 vaccine could help climate too
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Around the world, countries and individuals are isolating themselves to try to stem the spread of COVID-19. But to find a solution to the crisis - particularly a vaccine - global cooperation will be crucial, say a growing number of leaders.
“We will not be able to get out of this health crisis by simply boarding ourselves in,” former U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres told an online event this week.
Creating, distributing and administering an affordable, accessible vaccine will take a coordinated international effort - similar to that needed to tackle climate change, she said.
“As long as there is one person carrying the virus, everyone is under threat,” she warned.
On Thursday, about 140 public figures, including the leaders of three African nations and Pakistan, called on governments and their international partners to guarantee that, when a COVID-19 vaccine is developed, it is produced rapidly at scale and made available for all people, in all countries, free of charge.
Figueres, one of the signatories of the open letter for a “people’s vaccine”, said working together to find a solution to the pandemic was an opportunity “to exercise the muscle of international cooperation which is critical for climate change”. As trillions of dollars in stimulus spending begin pouring into national economies flattened by the coronavirus crisis - and as people rethink old habits - the world faces a rare opportunity to swiftly ramp up climate action, Figueres said.
About $20 trillion in global stimulus spending is likely to be deployed, the Costa Rican diplomat said - in the same decade scientists say is crucial to pushing rapid change to avoid the worst consequences of global warming.
Decisions about how that money is spent will likely determine whether the world succeeds - or fails - at stopping runaway climate change, said Chris Stark, chief executive of the UK Committee on Climate Change, which advises the government.
“Do we turn away conclusively now from fossil fuels and lock in a genuinely low-carbon future? Or do we repeat the mistakes of the last recession?” he asked in a separate online event on Thursday.
If money again goes to prop up fossil-fuel-based industries, “the goals of the Paris Agreement are going to be very difficult” to meet, he said.
LOWER EMISSIONS?
Global emissions of climate-changing gases are expected to drop 8% this year, according to the International Energy Agency.
That is a touch more than the 7.6% drop scientists say is needed each year this decade to meet the Paris accord goal of holding global temperature