The world does not need a miracle to tame global warming, just leadership, US presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg told UN climate talks in Madrid on Tuesday, calling for an end to government handouts to oil, gas and coal companies.
The billionaire and former mayor of New York City took a detour from his bid to capture the US Democratic Party nomination and earn the right to run against US President Donald Trump, who has aggressively promoted fossil fuels and dismissed climate change as a hoax.
“Beating climate change won’t require a miracle, it won’t require limitless resources, it will require leadership and common sense,” Bloomberg told a roundtable on climate finance organized by the Spanish government.
“The next president of the United States should end all subsidies to fossil fuel companies and fossil fuel extraction, and that includes tax breaks and other special treatment,” he said, taking aim at long-standing policies, as well as new ones put in place by Trump.
The money saved could be invested in clean energy “to create a lot of jobs,” he added. “If we take these steps, I’m really optimistic we can succeed.”
Bloomberg arrived at the 196-nation talks, scheduled to end tomorrow, with A-list actor Harrison Ford and outgoing Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, newly appointed as the UN’s special envoy for climate change and finance.
Carney called for mandatory disclosures from companies worldwide on their environmental footprint, instead of the current patchwork of voluntary schemes.
He also announced that the Bank of England would begin climate “stress tests” for financial institutions, calculating the risk climate change poses to their balance sheets.
“It is about a transition of the whole economy,” Carney said. “And those companies need to be rewarded or penalized if they are on the right or wrong side of the transition history.”
In the wake of the 2015 Paris Agreement for combating global warming, Carney and Bloomberg launched an initiative to encourage businesses to evaluate and communicate their exposure to climate risk.
“Businesses understand what’s at stake and they are not waiting for better leadership in Washington,” Bloomberg said.
Ford accused the Trump administration of “a lack of courage” by deciding in 2017 to withdraw from the Paris Agreement.
“We know what to do, we know the facts, what we need now is the courage to act,” he told conference attendees.
Last week, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi led a 15-strong US congressional delegation that carried the same message to the UN talks, at which major economies have balked at boosting pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Elan Strait of the WWF told reporters that the world was “desperate to hear real American leadership on climate change.”
Bloomberg is prioritizing the climate in his election bid and a study from a think tank he owns draws a clear line in the sand between himself and Trump on the fate of the planet.
Climate change experts cited in the report, from the University of Maryland and the Rocky Mountain Institute, estimated that the US would reduce emissions by 25 percent by 2030 if sub-federal climate ambitions remain at their current levels.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese