Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • - All of us can play a powerful and engaged part at this,

  • the most pivotal moment in human history.

  • (gentle music)

  • - Hi, I'm Christiana Figueres.

  • I have been working on climate change

  • for longer than you would care to know,

  • first as a negotiator of the Climate Convention

  • for my home country, Costa Rica,

  • from which I am speaking today,

  • and then undertaking several responsibilities

  • at the international level,

  • including delivering the Paris Agreement in 2015.

  • - My name is Tom Rivett-Carnac,

  • I was the head of political strategy for the Paris Agreement

  • working with Christiana,

  • and I've continued to collaborate with her ever since.

  • We run a podcast together called Outrage and Optimism

  • and we recently co-authored the book "The Future We Choose."

  • - The book is meant to be a helpful guide

  • to what each of us as individuals can do

  • to contribute to climate solutions.

  • Yes, of course, we need systemic policies

  • and financial investments that are also going to help,

  • but as we have learned from coronavirus,

  • we need both systemic changes,

  • as well as individual behavior changes, we need both.

  • Every one of us should know what our carbon footprint is.

  • Usually we check our bank account at least once a week

  • to know how we're doing on our bank account.

  • We should also know how we're doing on our carbon account.

  • And if you don't know what your carbon footprint is,

  • it's pretty simple to find out.

  • You go to Google, you type in carbon calculator,

  • and up comes a long list of carbon calculators

  • that have been put out by many reputable institutions.

  • Every one of us should know what our starting line is.

  • Some of us will have a higher footprint than others,

  • don't condemn yourself for having a high footprint,

  • it's just where we all start.

  • The important thing is not where we start,

  • the important thing is that we commit

  • to reducing that carbon footprint.

  • The questions that will be asked of you

  • will also be very helpful

  • because they will already indicate to you

  • where you can reduce your carbon footprint.

  • - Climate change used to be something

  • that was separated from us by a timeline.

  • It was supposed to happen in the future,

  • but we're already seeing continents burning.

  • Australia has burned with half a billion animals lost,

  • many endemic species,

  • the Amazon has been on fire, California, the Arctic.

  • These are early signs and this is just gonna get worse

  • if we don't get on top of it.

  • Getting on top of it means that we need to be at net zero

  • well before 2050.

  • If we are not,

  • then temperature rise will go beyond 1.5 degrees

  • and what will happen is the climate of the planet

  • will spin out of control

  • and we will lose the ability to have any impact on this

  • even if we reduce emissions.

  • That's the nightmare scenario that we need to avoid,

  • so to get there, we need to halve emissions

  • 50% less than they are right now by 2030.

  • After that, we need to be at net zero as soon as possible,

  • ideally by 2040, but certainly by 2050.

  • Those are the decades we have, no one else is gonna do this.

  • If this is gonna be done,

  • if it's gonna be successful or if it's gonna be a failure,

  • it's gonna be us that does it.

  • If we think about our footprint in a 10-year timeframe,

  • that's enough time to do this, right?

  • That 10-year period will probably encompass

  • a whole range of changes

  • in the capital-intensive items of your life.

  • Most emissions will come from a boiler,

  • they'll come from a car or a furnace or something like that,

  • and many of those items will be replaced

  • within a 10-year timeframe anyway.

  • So thinking about it in that slightly longer timeframe

  • gives you a chance to kind of make different decisions

  • when those big capital-intensive investments come up.

  • - You can also be much more mindful about our transport,

  • whether it's by land or by air or maritime.

  • One thing that we have learned now

  • with this coronavirus epidemic

  • is that maybe we don't need to transport ourselves as much

  • as we think is necessary.

  • Maybe we actually do much more telecommuting

  • for our daily work or even for meetings.

  • - I mean, who knew that we would get a chance

  • to see whether the world

  • can shift to telecommuting so quickly?

  • But what's amazing is we've seen an unprecedented transition

  • as a result of the pandemic

  • that people have had to stay home,

  • they've had to make telecommuting work.

  • Much of our work can carry on engaging remotely.

  • So, for the vast majority of us

  • who live in Europe or North America,

  • our footprint will mainly consist of two things:

  • if we get on a plane, it will be that, and what we eat.

  • The amount of emissions

  • that goes into producing meat is huge,

  • so beef is the worst culprit,

  • but pork and chicken and lamb are all part of that too.

  • Now, we can all make a difference

  • if we aren't yet ready and prepared

  • to give up meat or go plant-based,

  • which is very good for your health

  • and you feel better on it, which I can personally attest to,

  • then you can just stop eating it either one day a week

  • or two days a week or one meal a day.

  • Try and add more meals in your life that are vegetarian,

  • that are plant-based.

  • It'll make a difference to how you feel

  • and it will make a big difference to the planet.

  • - You can also look at the energy that you're using.

  • Are you wasting energy?

  • And all of us, I promise, all of us waste energy.

  • But we leave things on longer than they need to,

  • we turn lights on in one room

  • and they we leave and we don't turn it off,

  • so we can all be much more energy-efficient.

  • - So while none of us can leave our homes,

  • one thing that's really worth doing is trying to figure out

  • where the emissions from your home come from.

  • That's actually pretty easy to do,

  • you can find all kinds of websites

  • that will give you direction.

  • And there's a whole bunch of stuff

  • that you can do either yourself

  • or by engaging with those companies

  • that provide you with services to reduce your emissions.

  • I mean, one basic thing you can do

  • is if you live in a home that has drafts,

  • you can go around even right now and close off those drafts,

  • it can make a massive difference to your energy bills.

  • The other thing you can do

  • is actually talk to your suppliers

  • and find out if they can provide you

  • with a renewable energy tariff.

  • If they can't, there are certainly others

  • in the competitive landscape who can do that,

  • and increasingly you don't even have to pay any more.

  • - You can also be much more mindful

  • of which companies are you actually

  • buying goods and services from.

  • There are companies that are being

  • much more responsible on climate,

  • and others that are being much more irresponsible.

  • The force and the strength of consumers and clients

  • is very strong, hopefully you are voting with your wallet.

  • We have unfortunately grown up in cultures

  • that are based on irresponsible consumerism

  • and consuming more than we need is not helpful to us

  • and certainly not helpful to the planet,

  • so we have to learn when enough is enough.

  • - Right now, we can't leave our homes,

  • but there's a huge amount that we can do.

  • So I would encourage everybody who's at home

  • to participate in digital strikes,

  • which are already and still going on,

  • and also to use this moment

  • to find out who your elected representative is

  • and make your voice heard.

  • We all have a few minutes now, now that we're home,

  • that will make more of a difference than you realize.

  • Most elected representatives

  • never hear from their constituents about climate change,

  • let's change that while we're all under lockdown.

  • - Don't be afraid to engage in politics,

  • don't be afraid to engage.

  • It's very important to plant the flag

  • of where we know we have to go

  • and what we want for our future.

  • One of the mindsets that we talk about in the book

  • is stubborn optimism, and what we mean by that

  • is that while it is absolutely understandable

  • that we are all in deep grief

  • about the losses that we are seeing,

  • and while it is very understandable

  • that we get angry about the fact

  • that decisions are not being made quickly enough,

  • it is also very important

  • to not allow that anger and that grief

  • to drop us into a hole of hopelessness and helplessness,

  • because if we allow ourselves to drop into that hole,

  • we are not being helpful

  • to the transition that we have to make.

  • So our suggestion is certainly to honor that grief,

  • to honor that anger, which we also partake in,

  • but at the same time be courageous enough,

  • out of the anger and out of the grief, to play your part.

  • So I invite all of you to become members

  • of a growing family of stubborn optimists around the world.

  • (uplifting music)

- All of us can play a powerful and engaged part at this,

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it