NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 The U.S. government is going in the other direction. Temperatures keep rising. More extreme weather is sweeping across the world. Yet hundreds of leaders from government and business are in New York this week to keep the fight against climate change alive. Amid fracture and despair, they are emphasizing progress and hope.<\/p>\n
More than 110 world leaders will speak at a special U.N. climate summit Wednesday designed to get nations to strengthen their required \u2014 but already late \u2014 plans to wean themselves from the coal, oil and natural gas that causes climate change. Dozens of business leaders are in the city networking in various conferences aimed at greener and cleaner energy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re here to power on. In the end, we either will have a livable planet or we won\u2019t,\u201d said Helen Clarkson, CEO of The Climate Group, kicking off New York City Climate Week and its more than 1,000 events. \u201cIt\u2019s an uphill struggle, but we know we don\u2019t have a choice. It\u2019s up to us to protect what we love.\u201d<\/p>\n
But on Monday, as leaders talked about stronger national plans and reduction in fossil fuel emissions, Climate Action Tracker, an independent group of scientists who track pledges to fight climate announced that the host nation \u2014 the United States \u2014 had the biggest backslide in history.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the most aggressive, comprehensive and consequential climate policy rollback the CAT has ever analyzed,\u201d said Niklas H\u00f6hne, a New Climate Institute scientist who helps run the tracker.<\/p>\n
In much of the rest of the world, progress<\/p>\n
But non-U.S. leaders in politics and business highlighted how much of the world has switched to cleaner renewable energy, such as solar and wind, mostly because of price.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe economic case is clear,\u201d European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the Global Renewables Summit. She said 90% of new renewable projects generate power more cheaply than fossil fuels, and solar energy is now 41% cheaper than the lowest-cost fossil alternative. \u201cSo yes, the momentum is real.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year the world invested $2 trillion in renewable energy, twice as much as the fossil fuels that spew heat-trapping gases, several leaders said. <\/p>\n
Just 10 years ago when the world\u2019s leaders adopted the Paris climate agreement, the planet was headed to 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming above pre-industrial times. Now it\u2019s on track for 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit), said United Nations climate chief Simon Stiell. But it\u2019s not near the Paris goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), Stiell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will have inched forward so progress is being made,\u201d Stiell said. He said the unanimous consensus process of international negotiations is \u201cdifficult, but it is delivering.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some are not as bullish<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s not enough and too slow, said Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu\u2019s climate change minister. His country and other small island nations and vulnerable states plan to ask the U.N. General Assembly \u2014 which goes by majority rule, not unanimity \u2014 to follow up on the International Court of Justice\u2019s ruling earlier this year that all countries<\/a> must act on climate change. Vanuatu\u2019s resolution won\u2019t be proposed until after November\u2019s climate negotiations in Brazil, he said.<\/p>\n Places such as Antigua and Barbuda are \u201cunder siege for a climate crisis we did not create,\u201d Prime Minister Gaston Browne said of his nation, which has been hit by four Category Four and Five hurricanes in a decade. \u201cEvery degree of warming is an invoice, literally a demand sent to small islands that we cannot afford to pay.\u201d<\/p>\n The nations of the world all were supposed to come up with new five-year plans for curbing carbon emissions by February, leading into the Brazil negotiations. But only 47 of the 195 nations \u2014 those responsible for less than a quarter of global emissions \u2014 have done so. U.N. officials said they should be submitted by the end of this month so experts can calculate how the world is doing in its emission-reduction efforts.<\/p>\n The world\u2019s biggest emitter, China, and another top polluter, the European Union, are expected to announce their plans or rough sketches of their plans this week. The United Nations session Wednesday is designed to cajole countries to do more.<\/p>\n Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest tried to cheer business and world leaders on Monday. \u201cDespair is not leadership,\u201d Forrest said. \u201cFear has never built anything. We\u2019re here today to lead by your very example.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n The Associated Press\u2019 climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 The U.S. government is going in the other direction. Temperatures keep rising. More extreme…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":247739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[7779,131548,4214,10109,10106,285,10102,746,16446,131549,57,131551,131550,57960,866,159,131552,1206,67,132,2856,68,57957,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-247738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-andrew-forrest","10":"tag-brazil","11":"tag-climate","12":"tag-climate-and-environment","13":"tag-climate-change","14":"tag-energy-industry","15":"tag-environment","16":"tag-european-commission","17":"tag-gaston-browne","18":"tag-general-news","19":"tag-helen-clarkson","20":"tag-niklas-hhne","21":"tag-ralph-regenvanu","22":"tag-renewable-energy","23":"tag-science","24":"tag-simon-stiell","25":"tag-united-nations","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-unitedstates","28":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","29":"tag-us","30":"tag-vanuatu","31":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115251157892442495","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}