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