Syria

Connie Hedegaard delivered her final speech as the European Commissioner on Climate Action at the Sustainia Award Ceremony 2014. Enjoy! THANK YOU Ida (and John). THANK you Laura, and THANK YOU SO MUCH Erik for excellent cooperation and for your tiredless effort... ------ According to the program I will now: "deliver my "final statement as EU Cmsr" AND share "my personal reflections from five years at the forefront of the climate change battle..." In 8 minutes! - 480 sec.!! So: Pls forgive me that I will try to cut some of the superfluous words - and just use the ALPHABET for giving you SOME of the KEY WORDS that have marked the endeavours, the results AND the challenges still ahead. Of course we start with A - A for ACTION, ACTION and ACTION - THE one key thing - and A for AMBITION - the other key component. - By the way: Why is it always those who are ambitious that have to answer for the foot dragging and the dilutions that the UNambitious should take responsibility for? Well, just a reflection.... - Before we go to: B - B for... BACKLOADING ("a no brainer" I called it when we presented it... :-) Well, it actually WAS... But in politics even no brainers can take a looong time :-) B also for business, B for both Best in Class - and for Backtrackers. B for too much BAUEurope :-) C - for climate, for change, for challenge C for coal, C also for crisis and for complexity. C for China and C for consensus: COP consensus, EU consensus, IPCC consensus... Yes, it's difficult WITH - but impossible without because of... : D - DEMOCRACY - THANK God for democracy :-) D for Durban - EU speaking with one voice and making the right alliances with 100 developing countries pushing US, China and India to FINALLY move and acknowledge that without THEM also committing, the Planet simply won't make it! Durban might not be a big step for Mankind - but it certainly was a VERY big step for the UNFCCC negotiations:-) E - for EMISSIONS, E for ETS - emissions trading. Come on MS! - what are you waiting for - the reform proposal was tabled almost a year ago! - E for Europe and for Economy. "It's the economy, stupid!" Sure: that is exactly why we have to change our way of handling - and measuring - our real economy. More EFFICIENCY in energy can NEVER be bad for the economy in an energyimport-dependent continent! F - for??? Flopenhagen?? Or WAS it only that? After all we got the 2 degrees, the 100 billion and more than 90 states setting domestic targets... - F also for finance, for frontrunners (gestus), for FACTS. F for footdraggers and fossils - and yes, "fossils" CAN also be a noun...:-).... G - for green and for growth, G for GDP+ and G for Generations. The next generations whose wellbeing should influence the decision makers MUCH more. H - Hope I - Impatience J - for Journalists. Who asks questions that politicians must answer. But tonight I have a question for the press: Why is it more OK to be "Climate Fatigue" - than to be e.g. Syria fatigue, immigration fatigue, ebola fatigue...? Because the climate crisis is "old news"??? True it is - but does that make it less important??? K - Knowledge - no, it's true: we don't know EVERYthing - but we do know enough to act. No more excuses!!! And K of course also for....... Kann Foundation:-) L - For Life - and for LIFE+ - a part of the EU budget now with a tripled climate budget. Tripled like the WHOLE EU-budget!!! 20 % of the whole EU-budget MUST now go to climate. A new way of making a budget! M - of course for Monday Morning:-) - but also for Man-made! AND - another question: Also M for Moral??? DO we dare also to talk about moral, ethics, behaviour??? Maybe it's time... - for N - a new Narrative - also the one combining the growth, the jobs and the climate - which of course must go hand-in-hand. What else??? N also for NON gov.m. Org.s. Thanks to the NGO's for your work! Keep on pushing - we need you ---- (... as long as you don't ask for the moon...:-)) O - OECD and other org.s - IMF, WB - understanding that The new Climate Economy is a must - and cheaper than the alternative. - O also for Obama - Mr. President! now the ball is in YOUR court! P - for Pricing (now also in China with pilot schemes on Emissions Trading) and P for peaking (China again!) P for paradigmshift. P of course also for Paris. And P for parties - well not THAT kind of parties:-). PARTIES to the convention - And P for my PLEA to them: don't tell us that you have not had time enough to prepare what you will do. You have all had YEARS... And we don't HAVE more time. Q - for quality vs. Quantity R - for regulation (and NO! regulation is not bad - bad regulation is bad, good regulation is... necessary.) R for responsibility. And for re-use, re-cycle

• published: 07 Nov 2014
• views: 431