(LF.13) Climate Action

In September 2015, 193 world leaders agreed to 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development. If these Goals are completed, it would mean an end to extreme poverty, inequality and climate change by 2030.
Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

• [New] Tackling climate change is not only a new opportunity for the global textile industry but also a direction for shared responsibility across industries.
• [New] National governments are now in the process of submitting their energy and climate plans for the next ten years to the European Commission, which will check their proposed targets against a raft of clean energy laws that are in place for 2030.
• [New] Climate and environmental issues are the top risks facing the world over the next decade.
• [New] The WHO deems climate change to be the greatest threat to global health in the 21st century.
• Concerns about climate change have been rising over the past 10 years, and this year the top five long-term risks in the World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report were all in the environmental sphere.
• In the catastrophic fires that have engulfed the continent (which were exacerbated and amplified by unprecedented heat and drought made possibly by climate change), roughly twice as much carbon escaped into the atmosphere as was produced by all of fossil fuel burning in Australia over the last year.
• Peak medical bodies around the globe have classified climate change as the biggest threat to human health in the 21st century.
• Replacing the fossil fuels used in industrial processes with hydrogen will be essential to achieve the net-zero emissions required by 2050 to keep climate warming to 2 degrees Celsius.
• Euromonitor expects climate activists to intensify their stance against carbon emissions, further pushing consumers and businesses to do their part in the year ahead.
• Between the U.S. election, global unrest, tariffs, and climate change, among other urgent issues, 2020 is going to be a roller coaster of a year.
• U.S. carbon emissions are expected to fall just 4 percent by 2050, falling far short of the changes scientists say are necessary to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
• 215 of the world's largest global companies are recognising climate change as a serious threat to business - with nearly $1 trillion at risk and 73% of responding companies confirming they have board-level oversight of climate-related risks.
• Climate change is an existential threat to the planet and have vowed to bring U.S. greenhouse gas emissions down to net-zero by 2050.
• For a more macro perspective, the next year is set to be the most significant for climate change since the Kyoto Protocol came into effect in 2005, and the next quarter will see momentum and activity pick up.
• Emissions from the burning of coal, oil and gas are the main driver of climate change, but this year the UK Met Office predicts the impact of global weather events, such as the Australian bushfires, will contribute 10 per cent to the rise in carbon emissions.
• Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters.
• The United States is uniquely suited to develop, or co-develop, some of the most critical climate solutions that the global economy will demand over coming decades, from carbon capture to low-carbon fuels to novel solar and hydrogen technologies and beyond.
• As the urgency of the climate crisis intensifies, this decade must be the pivotal era when companies take the crucial decisions that will make our world more inclusive and sustainable.
• Climate change could lead to the reversal of all the progress made in the last 50 years in terms of poverty reduction.
• A challenging economic climate may persist this year: according to the Global Risks Perception Survey, members of the multistakeholder community see economic confrontations and domestic political polarization as the top risks in 2020.
• If the world makes the changes necessary to meet the emissions goals of the Paris climate accord, at least 82% of global coal reserves, 49% of global gas reserves, and 33% of global oil reserves will have to go unused the next 30 years.

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Last updated: 17 February 2020