Countdown to the Launch of C.E.A. Net-Zero Transition Platform

Date:2021-10-29

Source: Wechat Official Platform of C.E.A. Global Initiative

(click on the link to view the video of the speech)

 

In the general context where the United Nations Summit on Biodiversity, G20, and COP 26 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have been successfully held, a global dialogue and initiative on biodiversity and climate change is scheduled to launch — China-Europe-America Net-Zero Platform will be officially launched on the 20th of December, 2021 under the framework of China-Europe-America Net-Zero Transition Platform.

 

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On October 9th, on the eve of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties(COP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity(CBD), the Erhai Forum, aiming at better demonstrating China’s achievement on biodiversity protection, getting deeply involved in global environmental governance and promoting Global Ecological Civilization Construction, was convened in Dali, Yunnan Province.

 

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David Gosset, founder of the China-Europe-America Global Initiative was invited to address and declared the officially launch of China-Europe-America Global Initiative. The platform will be focused on clean energy, intelligence transportation and green finance to facilitate the global Zero-Carbon economic development and green transformation.

Following is the video and full text of David Gosset’s speech on Ecological Civilization and a Community with a Shared Future:

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

The crux of the matter is tragically simple: mankind finds itself at a crossroads, because the equilibrium between Nature and Man has been broken.

 

The facts are unambiguous.

 

Climate change, biodiversity loss and the consequences of unsustainable practices are not distant dangers; they are direct and immediate threats to our human family.

 

Climate change is certainly not an abstract narrative imagined by radical activists; it is already a destructive force that strikes at an unprecedented frequency and intensity.

 

We, citizens of the world, have all seen across the continents the shifts of weather patterns and global warming bringing devastation, suffering and death.

 

In the meantime, we, the human species, are responsible for an ecocide. 5 decades ago, it is the former Prime Minister of Sweden Olof Palme who made use of this somber concept of "ecocide" at the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment.

 

The situation has tragically worsened since then.

 

According to a 2019 "Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services" by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), 25% of plant and animal species are threatened with extinction.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, I was born in 1970. In my lifetime, the planet on which life emerged 3.5 billion years ago has lost 58 % of its biodiversity!

 

Let me add that since 1970, CO2 emissions have increased by about 90%!

 

The pace of the Holocene extinction, or the sixth and current mass extinction, exceeds the previous biodiversity losses: we are collectively responsible.

 

Since the beginning of 2020, we battle together COVID-19. We should not forget that experts point at the links between biodiversity loss and an increase in pandemics.

 

Scientists explain that a pathogen, like a virus, meets greater resistance in a world with higher biodiversity.

 

The United Nations General Assembly has rightly designed the Agenda 2030 structured around 17 interconnected Global Goals. Known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), they clearly indicate that we are on an unsustainable path, and that a paradigm change is indispensable.

 

Our meeting has to be a clear and loud call - among other calls across the planet - for immediate actions: the 2015 Paris Agreement negotiated by 196 parties has to be implemented, and the Sustainable Development Goals should be our top priorities.

 

The Earthrise photo taken in 1968 during the Apollo 8 mission has rightly marked our imagination. What has been called the "overview effect" introduces the reality of a fragile and truly unique planet which is our home.

 

The building of an ecological civilization is a moral imperative. It has to be also the principle of a global economy which would never sacrifice long-term equilibria for short-term profits.

 

Our production of energy, our transportation solutions, the world of finance have to be transformed so one reaches a net-zero carbon emissions society as soon as possible.

 

In this context, and in the framework of the China-Europe-America Global Initiative, we will launch on December 20 the China-Europe-America Net-Zero Transition Platform. After the UN Biodiversity Conference, following the G20 Summit and the COP26, new orientations will emerge. They will impact the discussions on clean energy, smart transportation and green finance that will be at the heart of our Net-Zero Transition Platform.

 

China has announced that it will strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions before the end of this decade and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. The country's 14th 5-year plan states that "we must adhere to the concept that green development is the path to prosperity". In the Chinese context, a potent metaphor is often used : "绿水青山就是金山银山” - "clear waters and green mountains are as valuable as gold and silver mountains".

 

Since 2019, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has put Europe in such a posture that it can tackle the environmental challenges. The EU's Green Deal aims at making Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050.

 

Under its 46th President, Joe Biden, the US is engaged on its own Green New Deal. The Leaders Summit on Climate in April 2021 put an end to his predecessor's irresponsible policies on the major issue of our time.

 

In the post Trump period, and while Beijing, Brussels and Washington DC are once again aligned on environmental issues, synergies have to be built among these three regions while they lead the world on the path of sustainability and deep ecology. Combined, China, the EU and the US represent more than 60% of the world economy and 55% of the global CO2 emissions.

 

For a global village of nearly 8 billion inhabitants, there is no time to be wasted on divisive discourses or behaviors.

 

Let us not reinvent new forms of Cold War. The moment has come for mankind to unite in order to defeat what threatens it: obscurantism, greed and extremism.

 

It is why I am an advocate of the vision of a community of shared future for mankind; not because it has been formulated by China but simply because it is the right proposal!

 

As much as one can feel the depth of the crisis we are confronted with, one can also apprehend with great clarity and confidence that a virtuous circle can be initiated: while the vision of a shared future for mankind presupposes an ecological civilization, a renewed sense of ecology is a generator of unity.

 

Technologies have been entering our lives in an unprecedented manner. It is only if it remains under the guidance of human wisdom that technology can lead us to the advancement of mankind in harmony with Nature.

 

In that sense, the most solid foundation for the building of an ecological civilization is the realization by each individual that one's own cultivation is inseparable from benevolence and the respect and care of Nature.

 

Anthropocentrism tends to separate Man from its natural environment. By contrast, an integral ecology guided by human wisdom would harmonize Man and Nature.

 

The means leading to an ecological civilization –  carbon pricing, carbon tax, use of legal instruments and others – are diverse. The forms it will take will vary from one country to another because they are too different to adopt the same energy mix in the first place.

 

However, an ecological civilization is fundamentally the constant effort to maintain the harmony between Nature, Society and Man.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, let us make sure that the three inseparable elements which are the appreciation of Nature, social justice and human dignity are at the center of our thoughts and actions.

 

Thank you.


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