Johnson says Glasgow climate talks 'turning point for humanity'

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday cast UN climate talks in Glasgow in November as a last chance for humanity as he made a passionate appeal for the world to slash carbon emissions.

In a characteristically colorful speech before the United Nations as he seeks success in Glasgow, Johnson urged humanity not to treat the planet as an "indestructible toy" and warned of irreversible damage from climate change.

"We will have made this beautiful planet effectively uninhabitable -- not just for us but for many other species," he told the General Assembly.

"And that is why the Glasgow COP26 summit is the turning point for humanity," he said, using the official name for the meeting of the UN climate body's Conference of Parties.

Johnson backed a goal of the developed world phasing out coal, one of the dirtiest forms of energy, by 2030 and the developing world doing so a decade later.

Pointing to Britain's own track record at reducing emissions while preserving growth, the Conservative leader rejected conspiracy theories often voiced on the political right about the intentions behind climate plans.

"I am not one of those environmentalists who takes a moral pleasure in excoriating humanity for its excess," Johnson said.

"I don't see the green movement as a pretext for a wholesale assault on capitalism."

- 'Everything to gain' -

Johnson hailed a pledge made a day earlier by Chinese President Xi Jinping to end coal financing overseas and urged the world's largest emitter also to end its own growing use of coal.

The 2015 Paris accord set a goal of reducing global warming by two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels with an aspiration to go further and limit the rise to 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit).

But each nation chose its own way to make efforts and UN scientists say the planet is well off track on the 1.5 goal, the threshold at which the planet is seen as avoiding the worst ravages of climate change including intensifying droughts, worsening storms and widening flooding.

Johnson voiced hope that all countries would emulate Britain's goals, among the world's most ambitious, to cut carbon emissions by 68 percent by 2030 compared with 1990 levels.

"We have nothing to fear and everything to gain from this green industrial revolution," he said.

"When Kermit the Frog sang, 'It's Not Easy Bein' Green,' I want you to know he was wrong -- and he was also unnecessarily rude to Miss Piggy."

Germany's climate militants fight for parliamentary seats
Monchengladbach, Germany (AFP) Sept 23, 2021 - Dressed in a rainbow-coloured unicorn costume, Kathrin Henneberger once camped on a beech tree, trying to save a forest from destruction. Come Monday, she hopes to be one of Germany's newly elected MPs.

The 34-year-old counts among one of Germany's most prominent climate militants standing in Sunday's general elections for a seat in parliament.

After years of occupying coal mines or blocking power stations, Henneberger and other activists now want a direct say in the halls of power.

Like Henneberger, Jakob Blasel, who co-founded the German chapter of Fridays for Future school strikes, is running on the Greens' ticket.

"The places where decisions are made are decisive for our demands," Blasel, 20, told AFP.

Blasel pointed to recurring droughts in 2018-2019 and July's deadly flooding as evidence that the impact of climate change has already reached the doorstep of every German.

The floods that struck western Germany over the summer claimed 181 lives and destroyed homes, schools and other critical infrastructure.

In the south of Germany, scientists in the Bavarian Alps this year issued another alarming warning of irreversible damage wrought on nature.

Sitting on a cliff on Germany's highest summit, the Zugspitze, the environmental research station Schneefernerhaus has an unparalleled view over one of the biggest symbols of climate change in the country: disappearing glaciers.

"Look, we can see that in some areas there is no more snow," said Inga Beck, 37, spokeswoman for the research station, standing in front of a window that looks out at the Schneeferner Nord glacier -- the country's biggest.

The pace of the melting has been accelerating. A report published in April by Bavaria's environment ministry estimates that 250 litres of water are oozing out of the glacier every 30 seconds.

In 10 years, the eternal ice cap on the German Alps would be consigned to history.

"Everything has to be done to prevent" further temperature rises, said Blasel.

And Henneberger has tried almost everything.

- 'No longer needed' -

"I occupied the mines, blocked the construction of power stations," said the activist, who has been detained for her militant acts.

"A new young generation has become active here now. I am no longer needed," said Henneberger, standing at the Garzweiler mine where she once faced off against an excavator.

"But this generation, especially Fridays for Future, needs parliamentarians who take them seriously," she said.

"The fossil industry is already at the Bundestag (parliament) and there is a very strong lobby there," said Henneberger, who joined a local Greenpeace group at age 13 and has stayed active ever since.

Their strategy now is to effect change from within.

But their demands for tougher environmental protection policies puts them at the radical edge of even their own party.

But they also face criticism from the Fridays for Future movement, which has said the Greens' official programme falls short of what is needed to stick to the 1.5 degree Celsius temperature rise outlined in the Paris climate accord.

Germany's Green party wants to end coal energy usage by 2030 instead of the current 2038. It also wants the production of combustion engine cars to end from the same year.

Critics have already sought to portray the Greens as a "prohibition party" that will lead to rises in petrol, electricity and air ticket prices.

With thousands of jobs in the balance, it remains to be seen how the demands from the young activists would play with Germany's army of older voters.

While younger voters are leaning Green, under-30s only make up around 15 percent of the electorate while the above-60s make up 38 percent.

- Don't stop protesting -

With just days to go until the vote, Henneberger and Blasel will both join this week's worldwide Fridays for Future protests. Greta Thunberg, who inspired the movement, is also due in Berlin for the march.

Earlier in the week, Henneberger was joined on her bicycle campaign tour by a deputy mayor of Moenchengladbach, Hajo Siemes.

Once an active militant against nuclear proliferation, the Greens party member for four decades said Henneberger's past will not hurt her possible future as a lawmaker.

"Many of us came from movements and were in the streets," he said.

Henneberger underlined the importance of that kind of activism, saying that even while sitting in the Bundestag, she needs protesters outside to help keep the pressure on.

"We need those who will occupy sites, others who organise demonstrations or launch popular initiatives," she warned.

"Just because there are a few more people in parliament, it doesn't mean that we can then stop protesting."

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Dutch face more serious climate threat than first thought: king
The Hague (AFP) Sept 21, 2021
The Netherlands faces a more serious threat from climate change and rising sea levels than previously thought, King Willem-Alexander said Tuesday, adding the low-lying country must do more to protect itself. "Climate change is without a doubt the most pressing problem," the king said in his annual speech opening parliament that is written by the prime minister and his cabinet. "Climate change and rising sea levels are happening much faster and are more serious than previously thought," he said a ... read more