World cities seek $375 b to fight climate change

‘Great Barrier Reef not dying’

MEXICO City, Dec 2, (Agencies): The world’s big cities will need $375 billion of investment to curb climate change, a large gathering of mayors heard in Mexico on Thursday.

“It is a lot, but there is no other option. Together we will seek that money,” said the new president of the C40 network of big cities, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.

If that amount is made available “humanity will have a chance of surviving,” she told a gathering of C40 mayors in Mexico.

The mayors were meeting to plot strategy in the face of climate skepticism from US President-elect Donald Trump.

They said they planned to make commitments to reduce harmful emissions by promoting cycling in cities and renewable energy, among other measures.

In one such initiative, the mayors of Paris, Mexico City and Madrid said in a statement Thursday they had committed to ridding their cities of diesel engines by 2025 to improve air quality.

As leaders of busy, polluted cities that are home to millions of people, the mayors gathered in Mexico City want countries to push on with adopting the so-called Paris Agreement to limit harmful emissions.

Watts

Warming

Trump has cast doubt on the accord, which aims to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The Republican billionaire has in the past vowed to tear up international climate agreements, though he said in an interview last week that he has an “open mind” about supporting them.

He had previously said global warming was a “hoax” invented by the Chinese and not scientifically proven.

The C40 group’s 85 cities include London, New York, Vancouver, Hong Kong and Seoul.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told the gathering that 38 US cities had sent a letter to Trump to tell him they would push ahead with their efforts against climate change.

C40 executive director Mark Watts said in an analysis unveiled Thursday that the world’s big cities must collectively cut their carbon footprint by nearly half within a decade if the 196-nation Paris Agreement is to be met.

With only one degree Celsius of warming so far, the world has already seen an upsurge in extreme weather, including droughts, superstorms, heat waves and coastal flooding boosted by rising seas.

The world’s big cities must collectively cut their carbon footprint by nearly half within a decade if global climate goals are to be met, according to an analysis unveiled Thursday.

Without aggressive measures by cities, the 196-nation Paris Agreement to curtail global warming “cannot be realistically delivered,” according to Mark Watts, executive director of C40, a global network of large cities.

“The next four years will determine whether or not the world’s megacities can deliver their part,” he said.

The report was released as mayors from 84 megacities gathered in Mexico City for a C40 urban summit, to mull long-term commitments for slashing carbon pollution.

The agreement, inked in the French capital last December, calls for keeping average global warming below two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, and at 1.5 C if possible.

To underpin the pact, countries have made carboncutting pledges which, scientists calculate, place the world on track for 3 C of warming -- a sure-fire recipe for climate catastrophe.

With only 1 C of warming so far, the world has already seen an upsurge in extreme weather, including droughts, superstorms, heat waves and coastal flooding boosted by rising seas.

The Great Barrier Reef is “not dying”, Australia insisted Friday as it updated UNESCO on efforts to protect the natural wonder while scientists blasted a lack of urgency in dealing with climate change.

Canberra last year narrowly avoided the UN body putting the site on its endangered list and was ordered to report to the World Heritage committee by Dec 1 on its “Reef 2050” rescue plan.

The giant ecosystem -- a major tourist attraction -- is under pressure from farming run-off, development, the crown-of-thorns starfish and climate change, which led to its worst-ever bleaching event this year that devastated swathes of coral.

Actions

In the report, the government said 32 of the plan’s 151 actions to improve the reef had been achieved. Another 103 were under way, four were delayed, and 12 were not yet due.

“When we came to government we inherited a reef on UNESCO’s endangered watch list,” Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg told Sky News.

“We’ve done everything possible since that time to put in place a plan, to invest huge amounts of resources to improve water quality, to work with the farming community to tackle the crown-of-thorns starfish and to preserve this natural wonder of the world.

“We have to put the facts on the table,” he added. “The reef is not dead, it’s not dying, it’s resilient, it’s healthy and we’ve made great strides forward in the last few years.”

Australia will spend A$1.3 billion ($965.3 million) in the next five years to improve the water quality and wellbeing of the Great Barrier Reef to prevent the World Heritage Site being placed on the United Nation’s “in danger” list.

But activists say the money - in addition to the A$1 billion fund announced earlier - is insufficient and want the government to take more concrete action to protect the reef.

A negative rating for the Great Barrier Reef - located off the country’s north east coast - would be embarrassing for the Australian government and damage its lucrative tourism industry.

In the first progress report to the UN’s scientific arm, UNESCO, after it stopped short earlier this year of listing the reef as “in danger”, Australia said it would spend A$1.3 billion improving the world’s largest living ecosystem.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull pledged a A$1 billion fund for the Great Barrier Reef in June.