How Can We Strengthen Climate Actions?: Ban Ki-moon / Former UN Secretary-General

Hello and welcome to DEEPER LOOK from New York.

I'm Del Irani, it's great to have your company.

This year, the nations of the world met in Egypt for an important climate change summit -- COP27.

After intense negotiations, countries agreed to set up a fund to compensate vulnerable nations for climate-induced disasters.

But tackling the underlying cause of climate change -- curbing carbon emissions -- still remains unresolved.

In fact, the main international treaty on climate change that's still in place is the 2015 Paris Agreement.

And the man who spearheaded those negotiations, was then UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon.

So, as the climate crisis worsens, what needs to be done now to further strengthen climate actions?

Well, joining me now to talk more about this is Ban Ki-moon.

He served as the eighth as Secretary-General of the United Nations between 2007 and 2016.

During his time as the UN Secretary-General, he put climate change at the top of the agenda, and today, he continues to be a global advocate for climate adaptation and resilience.

And he joins me now.

Welcome to the program, Ban Ki-moon.

It's a great honor to have you with us today.

Thank you.

It's a great pleasure to have this opportunity.

Thank you.

So, I want to begin by asking you on your opinion about the COP27 summit.

What did you think about it?

I mean, what do you think about some of what was accomplished, and perhaps what wasn't?

So, I have a little bit of mixed feelings about the COP27.

Basically, I welcome the results of the recently-concluded COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

First, COP27 has exemplified the fundamental importance of cooperation and solidarity among the state parties to take urgent actions against these climate actions.

What is important is that the leaders should raise the level of ambition.

Second, the historic breakthrough of the question on the pressure of loss and damage was a source of cautious optimism for me, after the issue was first raised almost 30 years ago.

But what is more important at this time is not the agreement.

It's how they can implement the loss and damage issues.

I do not hope that this will take another 30 years to find out the pathway, the details of the programs.

Now, I urge political and business leaders to demonstrate their utmost political will, to realize carbon neutrality by 2050.

This is a must.

And second, to make a detailed roadmap for how they will implement loss and damage issues.

Taking this opportunity on another very important issue.

This is a commitment which has not been implemented.

I can sense your passion for this issue.

And what's interesting to me is that you have strongly committed to the issue of climate change, since you took the office of the UN Secretary-General back in 2007.

I mean, you were pretty ahead of your time.

You know, what made you recognize the significance of these climate issues.

I'm not a scientist, nor am I a climatologist.

I'm just a political scientist.

However, I knew that climate change was happening and approaching much, much faster than one might've thought.

Then IPCC, an organization composed of almost 3,000 scientists and climatologists, they have been issuing all the times, and the scientists making plainly clear that climate change was happening.

That is why, as soon as I was appointed Secretary-General of the United Nations, what I did first was to talk with the President George W. Bush at the White House.

To convince him that United States should lead this campaign.

Of course, he was not much convinced at the time.

But I am grateful to him even now, that when really chips were down in 2007 in Bali, it was he who instructed his chief negotiator of America in Bali to agree to this Bali roadmap.

That is why I am very much grateful to him.

Then, secondly, as soon as President Obama was sworn in, I met him.

And I really wanted to have President Obama and President Xi Jinping working together.

Without US and China working together, nothing could have been done.

Of course, you know, even now, I sincerely hope that they just put aside the geopolitical conflict issues between the United States and China.

That's another one.

We are now talking about science, we are talking about nature, which is now happening to us.

It has nothing to do with the political issues.

Therefore, I'm just urging them to work together on this issue.

This my strong message.

Tell us a little bit about what it took to convince world leaders, and what does it take?

I mean, what should future leaders be doing on this issue of climate change?

How do we get through to world leaders and convince them to take political action, to have the political will to do something about it?

I was speaking to all the leaders based on what I witnessed myself.

I was not talking based on talking point, talking papers.

I have traveled to all the places, including Arctic and Antarctica.

Then I went to the Amazon River basin, where rampant deforestation was taking place.

And I met the indigenous people.

I went to Kalimantan again, in Indonesia, where again, deforestation was taking place.

These are all something that happened because of the changing weather patterns.

Then by mishandling, mishandling of a human being.

Therefore, I'm just asking government and business, civil society, and all of them to be working together.

We have to put, we have to join all the hands on the deck together.

Otherwise, nobody will be able to do that.

Not a single country in this world, however powerful, resourceful one, maybe like the United States, or China, they cannot do it themselves alone.

We have to all work together.

That is why from the first day of my job as Secretary-General, I've been very focusing on this issue.

Now we have a path, very workable roadmap, agreed upon in Paris Agreement.

And this is now effective.

Therefore, it is a matter of political will.

How much money, how much political ambition you are putting in to this?

I think the leaders of this 21st century, they should be accountable for what they are doing now for their future generations.

And we have only one planet Earth.

That's why we don't have a Plan B either.

That's why I have been speaking out all the time.

How strongly do you think are countries still committed to the Paris Agreement?

And how do you see the future of this Paris Climate Accord?

Unfortunately, we have not done enough because of lack of political will.

And on top of this, now, there are many political regional conflict issues, which have taken their resources, and time, and priority.

That is too sad.

They can be done later.

Later, when people can live safely and sustainably everywhere.

This is what I have been saying all the time.

Therefore, we have to really act to build bridges among people and government, and to extend the helping hand, and to speak out about this importance and urgency of climate change.

I am very much impressed by so many civil society environmentalists.

They are not being paid by anyone.

They do it their own way.

Just to go to any place.

And if you go to comm meetings, there are tens of thousands of civil society environmentalists working and shouting, to the world leaders to do much more.

We have to listen to their voices, and we have to be responsible for young youth.

Youth Leaders, Greta Thunberg, and many other young people are now speaking out to current leadership people.

Current leaders, they have to listen to their voices.

They have to be accountable for what they would not be doing for this young generation.

What's your advice for people that are involved in ongoing climate change negotiations?

Can you share some of the lessons you've learned, and how they can apply it now moving forward, to get more cooperation on this issue?

Yes, after my retirement during the last six years, I have been really traveling around the world.

Working on climate change.

I've been meeting world leaders and traveling the same places which I have been doing.

So, I'm really working very hard for particularly urging them to invest wisely, more on adaptation.

As a chairman of the Global Center on Adaptation, we are working, focusing on African adaptation.

Because the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions emitted by 54 African countries is merely 3%, in terms of global sharing.

Then China takes 28%, United States takes up 14%.

So, US and China take up 42% of global emissions, emission of CO2.

Therefore, we have to do much more for African countries, without having contributed to this current situation.

They are the ones who are being hit hardest.

So, we are trying to mobilize the necessary fundings, working together with the African Union Commission, as well as African Development Bank.

This is what I'm doing now at this time.

How do you see the future of climate change and the issues facing the world?

By nature, I'm an optimist.

If you are a pessimist, you cannot achieve anything.

But, of course, you have to look around where you are being situated.

In terms of where we are, I am very much concerned, very concerned that leaders are not showing and leveling up their political ambition.

So, what is most important is that political leaders should have as number one priority, domestic and global policies on climate issues.

This is a part of sustainable development goals.

And I am proud to have prioritized to work on these two issues, 17 goals for sustainable development goals and climate change.

If climate change is not implemented, then it may affect all the rest of the 16 Sustainable Development Goals.

Therefore, we have to prioritize and give all resources and our power to address this climate change issues.

I think we can do it, if we join all our hands on the deck together, the global partnership: government, business communities, civil societies.

When this type of tripartite partnership works, I'm sure we can achieve it.

Thank you so much for your time and your insights.

We really appreciate you joining us on the show.

Thank you very much.

It's been a great pleasure.

During his time as UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon achieved a rare feat: getting more than 190 countries to agree on a single issue of climate change.

Today, however, the world is experiencing a different set of crises and divisions, most recently, the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Join us next time, as we continue our conversation with Ban Ki-moon, and ask him about his first-hand experience in dealing with Russian President Putin,

and how he sees the role of the UN to solve these conflicts.

I'm Del Irani.

Thanks for your company.

I'll see you then!