Biden climate adviser's pep talk for young people - E&E News by POLITICO
Biden climate adviser’s pep talk for young people - E&E News by POLITICO
It’s reasonable for young people to approach the issue of climate change with a sense of gloom, President Joe Biden’s top climate adviser said Tuesday.
But he urged them to focus instead on opportunities to fix the problems.
“We’ve got a whole generation of young people who have grown up seeing the sky turn orange, breathing smoke into their lungs, and watching the devastation of floods and hurricanes, the fury of extreme weather, hurt lives and livelihoods,” White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi told a crowd Tuesday during Harvard University’s Climate Action Week.
“There’s a lot of — I think, founded — reason to approach this moment with a sense of doom and despair,” Zaidi said. “But my message to you is … this is a story we can write with a very different ending … if we approach it with a sense of hopefulness and a recognition of the possibilities that are embedded if we get the job done and we do it right.”
Related Knowledge Center: Climate diplomacy
Talks are well underway in preparation for the next major international meeting on climate change, 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28), scheduled to begin Nov. 30 in the United Arab Emirates.
Much like last year’s COP27, finances — specifically, aid to developing nations — will be at the center of conference deliberations.
The conference faces an even greater sense of urgency brought on by the Sept. 8, 2023, release of the first global stocktake, which calls for accelerated action to meet the goals set in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement (COP21).
Climate diplomacy: COP 27 | Climate diplomacy: COP 28 | Climate diplomacy: COP 29