Name: 2019 RSA President’s Lecture: Leading the Way Through the Climate Emergency with Emma Howard Boyd
Uploaded: 2020-11-29T19:50:42.000Z
Duration: 6 min 26 s
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Oh, first it can I say Thank you for joining us.

Adverbs of degree

A very good evening to And there's the president's lecture.

Our speaker also has, ah wide range off interests and interesting background.

So not just the chair of the environment Agency.

I think she got there by a a whole range of different experiences, not least of all the boards and advisory committees which included share Action Manhattan PLC, the princes Accounting for Sustainability Project on Green Finance Institute, all of which are quite challenging, um, organizations but has worked in financial services for over 25 years in corporate finance and fund management.

As director of stewardship Jupiter Asset Management until July 2014, she was an integral to the development of their expertise in the corporate governance and sustainability fields.

So we look forward to hearing from her the critical challenges to protecting environment on, more importantly, supporting that sustainable development.

The thesis of my speech tonight is that everyone in society, government, businesses and individuals needs to put the climate emergency at the heart of everything they do.

This work should not be in a box labeled environmental issues.

It should not be given occur 3 10 minutes at the board meeting before everyone gets back to the business off business, The climate crisis is the business off business.

It must become a default part of our thinking.

Otherwise, the dark and stormy nights of the coming decades will not only be much scarier, they will have an insurmountable e damaging effect on communities.

But I am not the ghost of Christmas yet to come here only to conjure a nightmarish apparition of the future.

My message today is that there's still everything to play for.

Last week on the northern Danish coast, a 120 year old, 720 ton lighthouse was put on.

Skates are moved 70 m inland to save it from coastal erosion.

The lighthouse that was rescued from the sea sounds like a Children's book, but drone footage of the fast minaret like structure gliding slowly across sand dunes, made it a global news story.

The ruptured region of Denmark is popular with tourists.

It was decided that the cultural and aesthetic value of this non operational lighthouse was worth securing for another 40 years when it comes to coastal erosion and flood planning.

The priority for authorities is to protect life.

But saving this lighthouse was not that it says something about the way people want to live.

When we talk about the horrors of the climate, emergency on extinction, rebellion a right that we must tell the truth about this, we should also think about the resilience of what we value now.

There have always been floods and droughts in the UK Justus.

There have always been typhoons in Japan.

So when you read an article about the latest record breaking climate event, it often comes with a side bar of analysis titled Is This Climate Change?

Last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said, We have 12 years to hold global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre industrial levels on.

Even if we do, the physical impacts like storms and heatwaves will increase.

C s report is not only momentous because of what it says.

It is a towering achievement because it managed to get scientist on government officials from 40 different countries to agree on a single document.

C released a new report saying that once a century, sea level events will be annual events by 2050.

So while we can agree that such things have always happened, we must also agree that the multiplying effect of the climate emergency means we have new questions.

A farmer might overcome a few Dr Summers with some tactical decisions about what to plant and where.

But a long term shift in climate means fundamental changes to the business or running the risk of ruin.

The climate emergency is now a fundamental threat to every area of modern life, so our response must be a default part of everything we do.

One of the leaders I look to is the former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson, who said to The Guardian last year, I don't think as a human race that we can be so stupid that we can't face an existential threat together on find a common humanity and solidarity to respond to it because we do have the capacity on the means to do it if we have the political will.

So I applaud David Attenborough, who said earlier this year the Garden of Eden is gnome, or Greta Thornburg, who said, I want you to panic and extinction rebellion.

Who have appropriated Rabbi Hilal's famous quote, If not now, when?

Because bringing these issues to the front of people's minds gets his past debating whether or not the latest natural disaster is climate change on focuses minds on what action we must take to reduce the risks on prepare for new extremes.

We need to get better a clearly assessing climate risks and opportunities on better of pulling our expertise and resources across communities, sectors on international borders.

If people would rather put a lighthouse on skates and spoil the view than humans, have what it takes to overcome the climate emergency.

 But no one can wait for leadership tomorrow, we must all get our own skates on today. 

Subtitles ListPlay Video

2019 RSA President’s Lecture: Leading the Way Through the Climate Emergency with Emma Howard Boyd

resilience

debate

sustainable

ruin