Richard Muyungi, the climate envoy and adviser to the president of Tanzania, said: Africa is ready to be part of [the global fight to stave off climate breakdown] provided we are supported with finance, technology and capacity-building. There has been an increase of investments in some areas but Africa still needs a lot of financing to be able to be part of the global solution, and to address the challenges we are facing.
Spending more on defence will be pointless unless western governments also tackle the climate crisis in poor countries, the UN's departing chief of international development has warned. The more you restrict your ability to act by simply focusing on what's happening inside your country, the more vulnerable you become, said Achim Steiner, who recently completed his second term as administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), which works on overseas aid and lifting people out of poverty.
The cap-and-invest program, authorized by landmark legislation (Assembly Bill 32) in 2006, sets a declining cap on greenhouse gas emissions from the state's largest polluters. Companies with large amounts of emissions must buy allowances through a carbon market, creating a financial incentive to pollute less and invest in cleaner technologies. The system works: it's driven emissions reductions, generated revenue and made California a model for climate action.
