14 March 2020 | New Scientist | 45Ten years to save
the world
Our actions in the coming decade will shape the future of life on Earth.
We should feel excited about the opportunities this creates,
Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac tell Rowan Hooper
T
HE 2015 Paris Agreement marked a
turning point in the fight to protect
our planet against climate catastrophe.
For the first time in more than 20 years of UN
climate negotiations, all member states made
a binding and universal pledge to reduce their
carbon emissions as soon as possible, and to do
their best to keep global warming well below
2°C while pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C.
As executive secretary of the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change, Christiana
Figueres led these negotiations, supported
by her political advisor and strategist at the
UN, Tom Rivett-Carnac. They later left the UN
and set up Global Optimism, an organisation
focused on bringing about environmental
and social change by working with key
campaigners, including Greta Thunberg,
Al Gore and David Attenborough.In their new book, The Future We Choose:
Surviving the climate crisis, they present two
scenarios for how Earth will look in 2050:
one where we have failed to meet the targets
set out in the Paris Agreement, the other
where we have succeeded and now inhabit
a carbon-neutral planet. They also outline
how individuals can best encourage positive
environmental change.Rowan Hooper: Your book builds on the
progress made during the Paris climate
negotiations and sets a framework for what
we can do as individuals to save the planet.
What inspired you to write it now?
Tom Rivett-Carnac: We are facing probably the
most consequential decade in human history.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) has set out 196 scenarios >JIT CHATTOPADHYAY/ZUMA PRESS/PA IMAGES