How To Solve The Climate Crisis On A Normal Monday

[Music]

my name is lola campford

i’m not a climate scientist so i’m not

telling you about

melting glaciers burning forests or

other

apocalypses i’m an economist i’m talking

about

costs and benefits i’ve been working for

25 years on the topic of

energy economics and calculate the costs

of the different forms of energy

oil coal gas or even renewable energies

and i calculate what costs how much

for 25 years my message has been fairly

clear

the longer we delay the energy

transition the more expensive it will be

nevertheless far too little has happened

in the 25 years in terms of climate

protection

this must change urgently now that’s why

for over a year now

there have been protests worldwide on

fridays

for more climate protection this is a

talk for monday

that’s when the new week starts and we

all begin to work

the people are rolling up their sleeves

and getting started

do you want to help stop the climate

change crisis

yes or no no then goodbye

there’s a door don’t waste our valuable

time

for those who say yes i’ve put together

a few thoughts and ideas

because there’s a lot to do it’s time to

clean up

it’s time to set up some rules for our

global community

so that we don’t face a much worse

disaster next monday

are you with me you can do much

more than you probably think and not

only in your individual consumer

behavior

yes i don’t eat meat either and i like

to ride my bike

even if it’s rains and the wind comes

from the front

climate friendly consumer decisions are

a good start

but climate justice justice cannot be

bought in the supermarket

what we need are binding new green deals

by this i mean concrete agreements based

on the global climate treaties to

implement these goals

nationally regionally and locally

we need politically committed citizens

who are

committed to a different climate future

in their

own specific environment we need to make

decisions

set priorities continue what has been

tried and tested

but also dare to experiment every

company

every association every school every

neighborhood

is a core of a climate friendly world

there you and you and you

there you can all make a small but

effective green new deals

concrete climate protection contracts on

how to reduce your emissions to zero

as quickly as possible contracts

seriously i’m serious our whole life is

based on contracts

when you go to the cinema you sign a

contract with a cinema operator

he promises to show you a certain movie

at a certain time

if he doesn’t do that you get your money

back

when you get on the bus you sign a

contract with a bus company

you may never have read the terms of

conditions

but you know that you will have to pay a

higher ticket price

if you have not bought a ticket before

and you get on the bus there are already

billions of contracts with which

we organize our lives they are not

always made in

writing often verbally sometimes even

implicitly

these rules agreements and contracts

ensure

that in case of conflict our court

ensures

that they are respected however we have

far

too few climate contracts that means

contracts in which it says that whoever

harms the climate pays

and that those who protect the climate

are rewarded

such climate contracts create clarity

and transparency

also and above all about the cause of

our way of life

because the bitter truth is that fossil

energy has been costing us

a lot of money for decades politicians

would have to come

out in the front of the public and say

we have been covering

up the follow-up cost of oil gas coal

and nuclear power

for decades we have subsidized fossil

fuels and nuclear energy

with billions and we still do that would

be the truth

we have been discussing sustainability

worldwide for

decades and in the meantime the opposite

is still being subsidized

there are contracts that state that you

don’t pay energy tax or value-added tax

on carousine

for international flights there are

contracts

that state that a company car is

privileged or

a tax refund is granted for agricultural

diesel

there’s a rule that energy taxes reduced

when goods are transshipped in seaports

and that electricity intensive companies

receive subsidies to compensate for

increase

in electricity prices caused by

emissions trading

and there are still a lot of regulation

and subsidies

for new heating systems

such subsidies are absurd and the

opposite of what we need

they are relics of time long past

they are vested interests of a few who

are outraged when they are

asked to give up their absurd privilege

we must dissolve such contracts and

conclude

new meaningful contemporary ones

to the contractually unregulated

additional costs of the fossil

world belong also the destruction and

resettlement of

entire villages for coal mining the

destruction

of landscapes and biotopes through the

extraction and transport of oil and gas

and last but not least the health

consequences of climate change

billions of people around the world are

affected

these are costs that can hardly be

quantified but

which must be paid if not by stead state

health systems

than by the people themselves the whole

course truth is

even more bitter we are engaged in

over-exploitation

of nature without consideration of

consequences

and above all without paying for it we

shift the costs in two ways namely

spatially and temporarily spatially

in that we do not deposit the garbage we

produce in our

own garden but in the most distant

places possible

out of sight out of mind we protect the

domestic waters and landscapes

we forget and burden the distant ones

in addition the redistribution of the

cost in the time

comes the earth does not warm up

immediately when we board an airplane

but with a time lag

since we have been emitting greenhouse

gases for over 115 years

but particularly in intensively in the

last 40 years

a mountain of debt has been accumulated

we have been accumulating costs for

generations

which will have to be paid back

generations after

us today we are already paying the price

of the past

but in the meantime we are accumulating

further depths

it’s not just the baby boomer generation

that has

lived at the expanse of others it’s also

today’s generation

x y and z it is all of us who

whether we like it or not continue to

run up co2 dabs

simply because we are part of the

western industrialized world

this too belongs in the radical truth

about the real cause

that’s why we urgently need new

contracts

regulations and laws but do we still

have enough time

for such contract negotiations

yes yes we do the time

to stop climate change is urgent no

question

but there’s no reason to panic the

change of course is within reach

we are the turning point now is the

chance for a real

change in principle the german

population is very environmentally aware

and has been for a long time 87 percent

that means nine out of ten people

now want to implement measures against

climate change quickly

and 71 now even believe that

environmental protection should take

priority over economic growth if

we manage to change by 2030 we can still

prevent the worst from

happening every day that we reduce our

emissions earlier will save

us time that’s why we must now think

short

term and concentrate on developing

solutions

that will have an effect by 2030 and

preferably

not beyond we don’t need perfect

solutions for eternity

but quick solutions that get us over the

short distance

it’s all about clever improvisation

instead of

know it all perfection our task is to

create structures that make it

easy for people to act sustainably

for example by making it visible when

energy consumption is high

or how much co2 is in a product at the

same time we should

regulate through laws and prohibitions

that some products and offers do not

even come into circulation

or that certain behavior is punished

with penalties

if we really continue along this path

resolutely

from now on there should still be enough

time to slow down

climate change and to preserve the earth

roughly

as we know it today and as it has

offered us

a home worth living for the last

thousand years

we start we stand at a crucial tipping

point in history

the decisions we make now will have far

reaching consequences

the directions we set now will determine

our future

even decisions i make today has

consequences

whether it is a small after effect waves

in the water

permanent damage or even extreme weather

effects

we all share the same vision out of the

fossil fuel world

into the renewable future the momentum

is there

let’s stand up together for small large

fair

intergenerational climate treaties for

new

green deals if we get off to a good

start now

start acting with conviction and take

the lead then 2020

the year in which irreversible climate

protection began

could go down in history as the tipping

point

then we would really have made a

difference

we are the first generation to eliminate

global poverty

and the last to stop climate change

said united nations secretary general

ban ki-moon in 2015.

it’s 2020. let’s do it