Pirate's Cove

I hope it was by Zoom

Six World Leaders on Navigating Climate Change, Without the U.S.

International collaboration on climate change is fraying. The Trump administration withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement, the 2015 treaty aiming to limit global warming, and has penalized the renewable-energy business and promoted fossil fuels. Ten years after Paris, a vast majority of countries are not on pace to meet their climate targets. With the United States sidelined and China ascendant as a clean-energy superpower, the global map of alliances on climate action is being redrawn. On top of all this, the planet keeps warming.

Debates around climate change often focus on the world’s largest economies and biggest emitters. But much of the hard work of figuring out how to adapt — both to a hotter planet and to a new geopolitical landscape — is happening in countries that have contributed relatively little to the problem yet are still navigating complex climate-related issues. Hoping to better understand how global warming and the changing world order are affecting some of these often-overlooked places, I spoke with six world leaders from different geographic regions. I heard some common themes: the ravages of extreme weather, the difficulties posed by the Trump administration’s retreat. But these conversations also illustrated the intensely varied predicaments facing world leaders right now.

They talk to

• Hilda C. Heine, president of the Marshall Islands, who says ‘We will be submerged by 2050 if the world doesn’t do its part.’
• Anthony Albanese, prime minister of Australia
• Mohamed Irfaan Ali, president of Guyana, who says ‘We can’t be naïve. The world will need fossil fuel a long time into the future.’
• William Ruto, president of Kenya who said ‘When it comes to emissions, we are paying for a crime that others committed.’
• Muhammad Yunus, chief adviser of Bangladesh
• Petteri Orpo, prime minister of Finland who said ‘We are going to change our whole society.’

Orpo’s full quote

Today we produce more than 95 percent of our electricity carbon-neutral. We are going to change our whole society to use clean energy and get rid of fossils and to be carbon neutral. And we can do it. Our companies are committed. And our people, the whole of society, is committed to these targets.

You will change whether you like it or not. Oh, also the NY Times

It’s Gridlock Week in Manhattan as U.N. General Assembly Starts

It’s that time of year when Midtown East in Manhattan both brims with action and comes to a standstill.

The 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, starting Monday, will bring together more than 140 world leaders to discuss contentious issues like the war in Ukraine and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. It is known by many diplomats as the World Cup of diplomacy.

But it is known by many New Yorkers as a pain in the neck.

The main event, which takes place this week along First Avenue between East 42nd and 48th Streets, brings with it impassable streets in Midtown East as well as intermittent closures citywide. The Department of Transportation is encouraging New Yorkers to use public transit and other “nondriving modes” for getting around Midtown over the next five days.

They want New Yorkers to take mass transit while the all the big shots, including the 6 mentioned above, take fossil fueled trips in big SUVs, along with their whole retinues. Climate doom is for you peasants.