Climate lessons we taught children but didnt learn ourselves

[Music]

[Applause]

hi everyone

let me tell you about my son his name is

vincent

he is four years old he is very special

because he is my

firstborn but he is like any other

european kid

he likes to take his school bus play

with his toys and drive his dad

crazy once in a while vincentes has

never

used a plastic straw and he doesn’t

understand why anyone would

he knows what could happen when you

throw away a plastic straw

after using it only once it goes to the

trash bin

then to the landfill it might get into a

river

and end up in the sea he knows that a

turtle

might eat that straw and for the turtle

that would be the end but the life of

the straw

could continue for ages nowadays most

children know these things

they know because we taught them

we teach them things like this like we

teach them about pollution and climate

change

but we do not always learn those

lessons ourselves single-use plastic

straws

will not be an issue in the european

union very soon

but there are many other challenges that

haven’t been addressed

and if we don’t tackle them there will

be consequences

and those consequences will be even more

serious

for our children and our grandchildren

i am the european commissioner for

environment oceans and fisheries

and i’m here because i want to talk

about the future

what kind of future we want and how

we can get there if you are young person

today

crisis is probably a way of life we are

coming out of the worst

health crisis in living memory perhaps

you have lost a relative if you haven’t

most likely you know someone who has

and the medium-term economic effects

could be even worse the largest downturn

of anyone’s lifetime by far

now we have the vaccines and most people

want to think about going back to life

as before

stop that sounds nice

but it would be a really bad idea

and i’m not the only one who thinks that

wherever you look

the evidence of climate crisis is there

from the melting ice in greenland

to the fires in amazon the more fossil

fuels we burn

the worse it gets more heat waves

and more droughts more severe weather

bigger hurricanes

arriving more often and it gets worse

there will be no vaccine for climate

change for air pollution

biodiversity loss or the unsustainable

use of resources

the big picture for biodiversity is

terrible

the united nations are talking about the

possibility of

losing 1 million species in the next few

decades

to put that in perspective there are

only 8 million species on the planet

in the last four decades global wildlife

populations

fell by 60 percent it’s a result

of human activities we have lost 60

percent of farmland birds

at eu level and in europe in the space

of

a few decades we lost 80 percent of

insect populations in some member states

these aren’t abstract numbers we are

talking the living fabric of the planet

across europe the variety of this fabric

is astonishing

the more you look into it the more

amazing it becomes

we have scary bears and mighty eagles

pygmy owls and a hundred kilo catfish

we have two thousand species of bee deep

dark primeval forest but what’s just

as amazing about our nature is the

ongoing decline

wherever we look we see our fingerprints

our footprint putting more and more

pressure on the world

we are relying on an outdated economic

model

it built the world we know but it’s also

brought the problems we face

more than 90 of biodiversity loss

and water stress come from the

extraction of raw materials

that feed this model and the processing

of materials

fuels and food it’s a linear economy

where we extract we manufacture we use

and then we throw things away we act

as though that was the end of the story

we act as though if we burn down one

rainforest

we could just plant a new one and it

will grow up in a year or two

we cannot it’s a massive

social inability to address the

consequences of

what we do

it’s easy to joke about environmentalism

i grew up watching south park and in the

words of eric

cartman it’s all a bunch of tree hugging

hippy crap

and there is still are a economist and

policy makers

who think in these terms who think

environmentalism

is soft-headed economics

that’s not my way of thinking and i’m

not naive

before i went to brussels i served as

the lithuanian minister of economy

there is a really good case for looking

at things

from a completely different point of

view if you just

accept the traditional way of doing

things

you are actually refusing to face

reality

accepting that your actions have

consequences

and that you are responsible for what

you do is the first sign of growing up

it used to be easy to ignore those

consequences because they are sometimes

hard to see

waste is a good example we grew grew up

thinking

we can throw things in a bin and that’s

the end of the story

or that a magic recycling technology

will make it just go away

but that is magical thinking

in 2019 global plastic production was

368 million tons

we recycle less than 10 that means we

have a plastic waste problem

of more than 330 million tons

every single year since the 1950s

the world has made more than 8 billion

tons of plastic

and around 80 of all that plastic

is still with us so isn’t it a time

to really address these problems

what we need is a different kind of

economy

it needs to be more coherent more

resilient

more sustainable that means solutions

designed for long term in a socially

inclusive manner

and more than anything it means taking a

joint up approach

tackling environmental challenges in a

systemic manner

with actions that do good on multiple

fronts

at the same time there are three key

elements

first you have to go climate neutral

because it brings

huge benefits for all decreasing air

pollution

means lowering the risk of respiratory

diseases and lessening the burden

on the health system that sounds great

but where do we start well first of all

we need to stop funding this harm

like fossil fuel subsidies the eu

countries spent around 159 billion euros

on energy subsidies in 2018 nearly a

third of that

went on fossil fuels that can’t continue

we should not subsidize anything that

undermines our own foundations

that sounds logical but it’s not a

reality yet

it has to be second

we need more circular economy that means

keeping resources in circulation for

much longer

and minimizing waste while making our

society more resilient

and delivering a healthy environment

if you want to reduce waste and minimize

environmental impacts

you have to start with design up to 80

of the impact of product are already

determined at the design phase

when we tackle this problem we have to

do it

from the very beginning it’s the most

effective strategy

and then thirdly you have to stop

biodiversity loss biodiversity and

healthy ecosystems

are the most effective weapons to fight

climate change

last year the eu adopted a plan

to put europe’s biodiversity on the path

to recovery

by 2030 it includes two very ambitious

numbers

first transforming at least thirty

percent of europe’s lands

and seas into effectively managed

protected areas

and second one third of these protected

areas

so ten percent a few land and ten

percent of uc’s

should also be strictly protected

in the eu we are doing all these things

through the european green deal it’s a

vision

for a better future built around a

really simple idea

a fundamental principle that should be

burned into the walls of boardrooms

and bedrooms and parliaments all around

the world

do no harm make sure that the

consequences of your action

your spending your behavior don’t have a

negative

effect on the world around you

that is our approach not just accepting

consequences

but anticipating them and acting to

prevent that harm

before it happens i want to leave you

with

one final thought all around the world

enormous stimulus packages are being

used to kickstart the economy

it’s a truly historic moment europe has

a 750 billion euro

recovery plan other countries have their

own recovery plans and funds too these

are massive investments our livelihood

our well-being

will depend on how this money gets spent

will it go on sustainable investments

will it foster a green

and digital transition more circular

economy

a smooth exit from fossil fuels

or it’s going to be a failed investment

it’s up to all of us to make sure it is

not

now let me get back to vincentes

a four years old european who is helping

shape the policy of the european union

without knowing

or understanding it he is just one of

millions of children

who do not deserve to live in a world of

forest fires

floods and climate immigration why

should they suffer the consequences of

inaction from their parents

or grandparents i got into politics

because i believe in change

i believe in the power of people to

shape their future

to set goals and reach them

but to do this you need to stand up

the real enemy we have to face is

indifference

we all know how awful it is to be

accused of forgetting to do

something you promised i do find myself

in that position

now once in a while i know how hard it

is to defend yourself

against a disappointed four-year-old

there are people who still think that

climate change is hippie crap

but imagine standing in front of all the

generations to come

and that’s a lot of kids and trying to

explain

why you didn’t do enough when the earth

was becoming uninhabitable

i don’t want to be in that position do

you