UK and Germany Host Petersberg Climate Dialogue to Develop Post-COVID-19 Plan to Tackle Global Warming

April 28, 2020 – A virtual conference involving the environment ministers from 35 countries met yesterday and is continuing today to talk about greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The goal is to develop an action plan to meet the original targets established in the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015, stabilizing atmospheric warming well below a rise of 2 Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) degrees.

The coronavirus has shoved climate change into the background since the beginning of the pandemic. Governments have been throwing vast sums of money at their citizens and businesses to counter the economic and social fallout from the lockdowns occurring all across the planet. If governments end up failing to stem the economic challenge the pandemic represents, how will they have the means to deal with the existential global warming threat?

The questions that these environment ministers are going to be addressing include what additional stimuli are needed that will allow their economies to flourish once the pandemic settles. Should governments currently be throwing their money at sunset industries that contribute to GHGs? Or should they be looking to investments in sustainable industry and businesses that recognize the future economy must be based on a decarbonization strategy?

So the talk around this virtual table which has been titled, the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, named after a city near Bonn, Germany, will involve developed and developing countries along with the United Nations Secretary-General, and key industry and social representatives. The Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, in celebration of Earth Day this week described the toll of the virus as “immediate and dreadful,” and as the greatest challenge the world has faced since World War Two. But in his remarks that day he described the environmental crisis as an “even deeper emergency.” He cited the decline in biodiversity and climate disruption tipping points as a reason for taking decisive action to protect the planet and humanity from both COVID-19 and climate disruptions.

The Secretary-General will no doubt apprise those attending at this online meeting of the climate-related actions he has called for to shape global recovery after the pandemic.

1. New jobs and businesses generated by a green transition.
2. Governments to show taxpayers that their money is tied to sustainable growth and green jobs.
3. Governments to use public money to make their citizens and nations resilient and capable of mitigating global warming.
4. Public money should be invested in the future not in the past. That means ending fossil fuel subsidies and making polluters pay for their pollution.
5. All nations must work together to address climate risks and factor them into every aspect of public policy.

The staging of the Petersberg Climate Dialogue this week will offset to some degree the postponement of the COP 26 Conference that was scheduled for Glasgow Scotland in November.

Svenja Schulze, the Federal Environment Minister from Germany, and one of the co-hosts of the Dialogue stated this week, “The coronavirus pandemic does not allow us to pursue business-as-usual, and that includes in our climate policy. At the same time, this crisis underscores the importance of multilateral cooperation. A coordinated international approach remains essential in climate policy too….Climate action hinges on how the international community organizes the recovery of the global economy. That is why our way out of the current crisis is also an issue for climate ministers and for the international level.”

Alok Sharma, the UK’s Secretary of State for Business and Energy, the other co-host and the President of the now postponed COP 26 Conference, remarked, “I am absolutely committed to increasing global climate ambition so that we deliver on the Paris Agreement. The world must work together, as it has to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, to support a green and resilient recovery, which leaves no one behind.”

This is the eleventh Petersberg Climate Dialogue, an annual event that draws governments together to address common problems. Its goal is a post-pandemic green recovery. The attendees will discuss creating new jobs while advancing climate action, and designing stimulus programs around climate policy. Unique to this year’s meeting is the addition of non-national government participants including cities, businesses, unions, scientists, and NGOs. I hope to report further to my readers about the programs and policies agreed to after the conclusion of the conference at the end of today.