Earth Day 2021 marks a historic moment for action on climate change. President Biden Leaders’ Summit on Climate is unprecedented and he is expected to put forward ambitious national commitments.If the US halves its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 2005, major governments would be committed to at least 60% of the effort required for the world to meet net-zero emissions by 2050.
There is still much diplomatic work required to close this commitment gap ahead of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November, but it would mark a major political turning point on climate action.
The additional challenge is to now turn these political commitments into practical action, especially to get on track with emissions reductions by 2030.
A ‘once in a generation’ push for public-private cooperation
The transition to get on track for net-zero emissions may now be viewed through the perspective of a unique, decadal effort of public-private cooperation – a once in a generation push for an energy, industrial and agricultural systems upgrade, boosted by the need for a post-pandemic economic stimulus.
More than 1,000 corporations for example have now made net-zero commitments, and a United Nations-convened group of investors called the “Net Zero Asset Owners Alliance” now has more than $5 trillion of assets under ownership committed to this goal by 2050 or sooner.
We know we have 10 years to get on track. We know we must remove about 25 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions in that time. We know what sectors of the economy we must focus our efforts on.
Dominic Waughray
Managing Director, World Economic Forum
About World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum, committed to improving the state of the world, is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. (www.weforum.org).
