Hothouse Earth: Heated times EU and UN perspectives on peace,

sustainability and the climate breakdown

Public meeting organised by UNA-UK - Lymington Branch, 19:00-21:00, 21/09/2018

Intro

Good evening! I am Keith Taylor, the Green MEP for South East England and
a member of the European Parliament’s Environment and Public Health and
Transport and Tourism committees.

I’m also the European Chair of the Climate Parliament, an international

cross-party network of legislators, dedicated to preventing climate change and
promoting renewable energy.

Thanks to the Lymington branch of the United Nations Association–UK for

inviting me to speak here today, and thanks for joining me this evening to
discuss EU and UN perspectives on peace, sustainability and the climate
breakdown.

The European Union (EU) has been an observer state at the United Nations
(UN) since 1974. The UN bodies and the EU work closely together as they
share the same fundamental values and goals.

As Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs

and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, said at
the UN Security Council in May last year:

"The European way is also the United Nations' way. This explains why all our
actions, all our initiatives are always taken in full coordination and partnership
with the UN. We believe in the UN, because we believe in the same principles,
in the same values, and our communities are built upon the same fundamental
ideals".
The EU itself does not have voting rights but it is represented alongside its 28
members. Apart from the High Representative, the EU is represented by the
President of the European Council, and the EU Delegations.
The Delegations are accredited to the UN in Geneva, Paris, Rome, Vienna,
Nairobi — and New York. Their role is to coordinate the EU’s day-to-day
relations with the UN.

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The Delegations also report back to EU headquarters in Brussels on the UN’s
activities. Their reports feed into the political agenda in Brussels, which in turn
creates a framework for operations at the local level.

The EU Delegation to the United Nations in New York coordinates with the 28
EU countries to ensure they speak with one voice.

The Delegation has had enhanced observer status at the UN since 2011. This
allows the EU to present common positions, make interventions, present
proposals and participate in the UN’s general debate every September.

Together, the EU and its member countries are the UN’s largest financial
contributor, providing the UN not only with 30% of its regular budget, but also
the largest funding of official development assistance and peace-keeping
missions.

The EU works with the UN Secretariat and its agencies, funds and
programmes on a range of global issues, including:
● human rights,
● peace building & conflict prevention,
● humanitarian assistance,
● sustainable development and
● climate change.

Climate Change

These efforts have never been more been more relevant. They’ve never been
more urgent.

We live on a warming planet. Since the industrial revolution, humankind’s

activities have steadily increased the temperature, to a point where it is right to
be fearful of runaway climate change.

The Met Office has confirmed that anthropogenic climate change had been the
driving cause of England’s hottest summer ever recorded. They’ve
reconfirmed that the risk of heatwaves, lack of rainfall, and other forms of
extreme weather, is increasing due to greenhouse gas emissions.

We cannot pass the point of no return. And we definitely can’t waste any more
time on misguided and needless debates over whether or not climate change

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is real. It is real. And we need to act now, or the consequences will be
catastrophic.
In December 2015, global leaders finally put environmental sustainability and
climate action at the core of the new agenda and 195 countries adopted the
first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal.

The Paris Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen the global response to the
threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well
below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to
limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

I made it clear from the beginning, that while Paris is an important stepping
stone, what happens after is just as, if not even more, important. We need bold
policies and stringent implementation of measures to reduce our fossil fuel
dependence, especially as we’re getting closer to leaving the EU.

In particular, we need to find solutions in the energy supply and transport

sectors which together account for 51% of UK GHG emissions.

In the UK, we have seen a monumental reliance on nuclear power generation

and oil and gas extraction, which defies both reason and science.
All this at a time when renewable energy has never been cheaper!
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Britain must improve its renewable energy performance. The effective ban on
onshore wind – the cheapest form of new electricity generation – has to be
reversed and new support for onshore wind and photovoltaics introduced.

We need to scale up investment in offshore wind and marine renewables; and

this has to go hand in hand with a comprehensive plan to decarbonise heat,
including pilot residential and commercial projects.

We need to phase-out the £6bn-a-year fossil fuel subsidies, divest public funds
from the fossil fuel industry, and ensure a just transition for those communities
dependent on fossil fuel jobs.

And we urgently need to introduce a ban on fracking and unconventional oil

and gas drilling to keep fossil fuels where they belong: in the ground.

Transport & Sustainable Development Goals

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As part of the EU 2020 strategy, it is legally obliged to increase the proportion of renewable energy in its energy mix to 15%.
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Much of my work falls at the nexus of improving social, environmental and
economic conditions, reconciling the trade-offs and co-benefits that go
hand-in-hand with thinking more holistically about the challenges the world
faces.

In my roles on the Transport and Environment committees, I see first-hand

how the imperatives to make society cleaner, greener and healthier are often
met with systemic barriers to change.

That is why the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are so fundamental to

helping us make these bolder choices and taking bigger steps towards a safer,
more prosperous future for all.

The United Nations Member States adopted the 17 Sustainable Development

Goals in 2015 because they understood that it would not be possible to build a
peaceful world if steps were not taken to achieve economic and social
development for all people everywhere, and ensure that their rights were
protected.

And they are a testament to how far we have come as an international

community.

Take ‘the environment’ as an example. In 2000, the Millennium Development

Goals first acknowledged that environmental sustainability was an international
policy imperative.

Fast-forward 15 years, and we developed 17 goals, 7 of which are explicitly

linked to improving environmental quality in particular areas. We know more
about the impacts and we are taking action to address them.

One of the areas, however, that we haven’t quite gotten to grips with yet is the
transport sector. And this is frustrating because we have all of the tools we
need to address the environmental and social impacts of transport, but it
remains framed almost entirely from an economic perspective and there
appears to be a lack of political will to change the status quo.

This can no longer be the case, and the SDGs can help. The challenge
however is that there is no explicit goal which focuses on transport.
It is a cross-cutting issue related to many of the goals - sustainable cities,
responsible production and consumption and climate action, to name but a
few.
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According to the Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport
(SLoCaT), the text includes five targets that are directly related to the transport
sector and seven other targets that are indirectly related to the transport
sector.

And sustainable transport is required in order to facilitate the achievement of a

number of other goals. But much more attention needs to be focused on the
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issue specifically in order to achieve ‘the future we want’ .

My new publication sets out my vision for sustainable transport in the UK - it

draws on lessons from Europe and highlights that we have the tools for
greener, cleaner, fairer transport. ​

Ultimately, we need to be moving away from private cars, towards more, not
less public transport.

We need to include the emissions from aviation and shipping in our plans and
targets, so our responses are up to the task and don’t underestimate the
global scale of the reductions needed.

We must promote walking and cycling, and provide the relatively modest
investment that improving this infrastructure would require.

We need freight delivery to switch away from the roads and we need smarter
distribution systems to ensure that trips are minimised.

We have to think more about end-to-end journeys, sustainable, multi-modal

mobility and low carbon, less polluting and truly interconnected networks.

The transport sector’s emissions keep growing. It is responsible for more than
a fifth of greenhouse gas emissions in the European Economic Area, and 70%
of the EU’s oil consumption, largely due to the explosive growth in road and air
transport. So action needs to be taken urgently.

International Day of Peace & UNRWA

Climate change is not the only hot issue these days. We live in heated times.

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​This was the name of the international declaration signed on to at Rio+20 on 2012.
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Today, Friday 21st September, the world observes the International Day of
Peace. The UK declared this as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of
peace, both within and among all nations and people.

This year’s theme is: The Right to Peace. It celebrates the 70th anniversary of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

As a member of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with

Palestine (DPAL), I would like to say a few words about the United Nations
Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

UNRWA is a relief and human development agency, and the situation it finds
itself in is bleak.

In January this year, the United States (US) announced that it would slash its
annual aid contribution to the charity by half: from $125 to $65 million dollars.

In response, UNRWA launched its #DignityIsPriceless campaign which called

on its contributors to up their donations; its ultimate aim is to gather funds of
US$ 800 Million in an attempt to fill the void left by the US.

On 6th February 2018, ​I organised and co-hosted an open meeting​ in the

European Parliament in Strasbourg alongside my Green colleague and
Vice-Chair of the DPAL*, Margrete Auken, with Matthias Burchard, Director of
UNRWA** EU, to discuss funding to the charity in light of Trump’s decision to
slash the US’ annual aid contribution.

In terms of ​action​ at the EU level, I was a co-signatory of the European

Parliament's ​joint motion for resolution on the situation of UNRWA​ and worked
on the Greens/EFA proposals included in the resolution.

The resolution called for all donors to honour their commitments and for EU
Member States to increase their contributions as much as possible.

I also co-signed a ​written question​ to the European Commission regarding

UNRWA, asking what the EU can do to step up its contribution. And in May, I
took the opportunity while speaking on the situation in Gaza to remind High
Representative Mogherini of the importance and value of UNRWA.

In June, I hosted the launch of a study commissioned by the German Institute

for International and Security Affairs, "​Actors in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
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Interests, Narratives and the Reciprocal Effects of the Occupation​"; one of the
chapters of which focuses on the functioning of UNRWA.

The announcement was unexpected and hard-hitting.

It was only in December 2017 that the EU donated an extra €10.5 Million to
UNRWA to try to accommodate towards the dwindling conditions of
Palestinian refugees in the Middle East. However, this would not be enough
tackle the huge dent that the US was about to create.

In the past few months, many contributors have reiterated their unwavering
support for UNRWA and increased their donations: the EU; Rome (The
Vatican); Qatar; Turkey; Saudi Arabia; the United Arab Emirates; Italy; Austria;
Germany; and many others have been amongst the fastest and strongest
donors to UNRWA.

A bitter end-of-summer gift was offered by the US when in August it further

announced that it would halt ​all ​funding to UNRWA.

This deeply disappointing announcement leaves UNRWA, Palestine and Israel

in a precarious situation. For 70 years now, UNRWA has done the job that the
state of Israel, as an (illegal) occupier is supposed to but has refused to do: to
take care of the occupied population; to provide them with homes, schools,
safety, livelihoods.

With UNRWA suffering major funding issues, scrambling to make ends meet;
the effects will be felt heavily not just by Palestinians - first and foremost – but
will reverberate around the Middle East.

Its consequences will be devastating unless serious action is taken as soon as

possible to restore UNRWA's capacities as a vital provider of aid.

In light of all these recent developments, it is all the more important that the
other UN member states, stand together in solidarity to tackle the collective
challenges we face together. Issues that show no respect for borders and
require collaborative and cooperative solutions.

Thank you!