A virtual climate summit to cut carbon footprint

A virtual climate summit to cut carbon footprint

News:

1. World leaders will participate in an innovative climate change summit that will take place entirely online so it is carbon neutral.

Important Facts:

2. About the summit:

• The event will be the first global political meeting to be held online.
• It will consist of a rolling, 24-hour livestream that will begin in the Marshalls’ capital Majuro, then include addresses from leaders and panel discussions before delivering a declaration.
• The Virtual Climate Summit is the brainchild of Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine, whose low-lying Pacific island nation will drown beneath rising seas if global warming continues unabated.
• It’s main aim is to encourage the international community to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

3. Significance:

• The cutting-edge setup was designed to show that even small nations such as the Marshalls could make a big difference on the world stage using creative, climate-friendly solutions.
• The online summit as an example of the innovative thinking needed to combat climate change.

4. Background:

• The eco-friendly event stands in stark contrast to many other international political summits, which involve thousands of delegates jetting across the world to a venue where they stay in air-conditioned comfort.
• The organisers of the UN’s COP21 talks in Paris in 2015 estimated it generated 43,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, although much of this was later offset through carbon-credit schemes.
• A UN report warned recently that the threshold could be reached as early as 2030 unless there was unprecedented global action to rein in emissions.
• 17 of the 18 hottest years on record had occurred since 2001 and that the cost of climate-related disasters in 2017 topped $500 billion.