{"id":1558,"date":"2020-09-26T08:26:29","date_gmt":"2020-09-26T08:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelcommunication.net\/?p=26365"},"modified":"2020-11-02T02:37:03","modified_gmt":"2020-11-02T02:37:03","slug":"embrace-circular-economy-or-we-will-miss-paris-climate-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/global-travel-news\/embrace-circular-economy-or-we-will-miss-paris-climate-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"Embrace Circular Economy or We Will Miss Paris Climate Goals"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\"Embrace<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n

The Hague, Netherlands, September 26, 2020 \/ TRAVELINDEX \/ As political leaders seek to engage the private sector in making the European Union\u2019s $1 trillion Green Deal initiative a reality, the focus should be on the whole circular economy, not just one sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to look beyond energy if we want to attain the Paris Agreement goals,\u201d said Stientje van Veldhoven, Minister for the Environment of the Netherlands, in her address today to the World Economic Forum\u2019s Sustainable Development Impact Summit.<\/p>\n

The minister pointed to a recent study by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation which reported that 45% of CO2 emissions are related to the production of goods and food. \u201cWe really need to link climate change and the circular economy because if we don\u2019t, we\u2019re not just neglecting half of the problem, we\u2019re also neglecting half of the solution,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A focus on the circular economy offers much \u201clow-hanging fruit\u201d in the form of unnecessary waste and costs. \u201cThis is a great agenda to work on with industry,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a very optimistic agenda\u2026a lot can be done and we can manage this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The political legitimacy to take action on climate change has been enhanced by the rise of green parties across the European Union. Arancha Gonzalez Laya, Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of Spain, said: \u201cWhat we now need is to accelerate this movement\u2026in the form of the European Green Deal and use the recovery post-COVID to accelerate the change.\u201d<\/p>\n

She laid out the concrete steps to make this happen: legislating the plan; setting clear indicators to measure progress; generating the investment needed; and ensuring the transition to a greener Europe is inclusive, leaving no citizen behind. Working with the private sector is, she said, \u201cessential in achieving this goal\u201d.<\/p>\n

AXA, the insurance giant, plans to shift $24 billion of its investments into green bonds by 2023, said Thomas Buberl, the company\u2019s chief executive officer. He pointed out that AXA was the first large insurer to divest from coal but called for more clarity on how \u201cgreen\u201d is defined. \u201cThe criteria for what is green and what is not green needs to be rock solid and well-defined \u2013 there is still some work to be done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Buberl questioned the European Commission\u2019s silo approach to developing its green taxonomy and called for a new dialogue between business and government so companies can provide input very early in the process to ensure regulation heads in the right direction. He suggested that public and private sectors should co-develop standards and rules rather than the traditional, slow \u201cproposal-feedback process\u201d.<\/p>\n

He contrasted the European Green Deal favourably with previous efforts to encourage green growth based on tax and production subsidies. \u201cThis new plan very much focuses on investment,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are combining economic growth and decarbonization through investment \u2013 this is very important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Session participants explored how to turn the European Green Deal\u2019s goals into action. These included the importance of encouraging the public to use new, green technologies as consumers need to change their behaviour as well as businesses. On top of incentivizing people to shift to more carbon-neutral choices, governments and companies need to invest in reskilling citizens for new jobs in the green economy. Small and medium-size enterprises generate 30%-40% of innovations but lack access to finance \u2013 and the Green Deal should channel more capital towards SMEs.<\/p>\n

Europe needs to agree on a price for carbon and SwissRe\u2019s working assumption is $100 per tonne. Standards, disclosures and metrics need more harmonization, and there needs to be more transparency around which products can be defined as green. The oil sector called for some recognition that their transition is not an overnight process \u2013 green bonds need to be supplemented by products and a taxonomy that encourage a transition in the right direction. Decarbonization is not the only goal requiring financing \u2013 natural capital also needs attention and infrastructure projects must be viewed through a green lens.<\/p>\n

About the Sustainable Development Impact Summit 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

The fourth World Economic Forum Sustainable Development Impact Summit<\/strong> comes at a time unlike any other. Under the theme, Realizing a Great Reset for Sustainable Development, this year\u2019s summit brings together more than 3,800 leaders from government, business and civil society. From more than 141 countries, voices at the cutting edge of sustainable development are meeting virtually for the first time. They will share new perspectives to initiate, accelerate and scale-up entrepreneurial solutions that advance the Sustainable Development Goals and tackle climate change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Hague, Netherlands, September 26, 2020 \/ TRAVELINDEX \/ As political leaders seek to engage the private sector in making the European Union\u2019s $1 trillion Green Deal initiative a reality, the focus should be on the whole circular economy, not just one sector. \u201cWe need to look beyond energy if we want to attain the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-travel-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}