The Former President of the Republic of Chile, H.E. Mr. Ricardo Lagos Escobar, highlighted the situation of developing countries that have to face climate change and foster economic development simultaneously. He recalled the history of summits and agreements starting from the Kyoto agreement in 1988 which classified countries according to their level of development, obliging developed countries to reduce carbon emission by 2009 while the developing countries focussed on developing their internal economy. The unsuccessful Copenhagen summit in 2009 found that such a distinction between developing and developed countries cannot be maintained, which is why, a new system of thinking is needed. The Paris Agreement of 2015 established that all countries can willingly define their own commitments regarding emission control that will be then ratified and considered binding. However, with the largest emitter of greenhouse gases withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, Mr. Lagos said in Barack Obama’s words, “We are the last generation with a possibility to act against climate change because it will become irreversible after that.”
Mr. Ricardo Lagos presented three concrete actions to limit temperature below 1.5° C:
• New Paradigm: GDP increment linked to Emissions per Capita reduction - … measuring GDP growth alongside Emissions per Capita decrease in the classification of countries will be the key.
• Encourage private sector to reduce emissions - … 10 to 12 out of the 100 largest companies should commit to emissions reduction in COP26.
• The technological development to reduce emissions
Proceedings from WSDF 2020: https://worldsdf.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/WSDF-2020-Report.pdf
WSDF 2020: https://worldsdf.org/events/durango-mexico-march-2020/