Governments must not let the coronavirus pandemic derail action on climate change, an architect of the landmark Paris agreement warned on Wednesday
Bloomberg News March 18, 2020, 12:19 PM EDT
Beijing’s move toward relaxing emissions standards will ratchet up concern that policymakers around the world may scale back their climate goals as they seek to rescue their economies from the ravages of the coronavirus.
The Chinese government is said to be debating whether to ease restrictions on the amount of harmful particles that vehicles emit from their tailpipes — a measure known as particle number, or PN. The move would help automakers battling an unprecedented slump as the pandemic slows economic activity. It could be just one of the steps by the government in Beijing to shore up key sectors.
That stimulus is likely to come at a cost to efforts to protect the environment, since officials could give priority to the health of industries that have an outsized impact on greenhouse gas pollution, especially construction, transport and infrastructure. That combined with signs that green issues are slipping down the European Union’s agenda would reduce momentum on the issue from two main on main forces driving work on climate change.
Don’t let coronavirus stall climate action, warns architect of Paris deal
Laurence Tubiana, a former French diplomat who was instrumental in brokering the 2015 accord aimed at averting catastrophic global warming, said the disruption caused by the coronavirus was a wake-up call.
“In a way, it’s a lesson: viruses don’t respect borders, climate change doesn’t respect borders,” Tubiana, who continues to closely track climate diplomacy, told an online briefing. “If we do not manage the climate crisis it will be the same.”
Tubiana was speaking amid mounting concerns that the economic disruption caused by the coronavirus could tempt governments to shy away from the massive effort to cut carbon emissions needed to stabilise the Earth’s climate system.
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