Limiting global temperature rise to between 1.5 and 2-degrees Celsius is not the impossible task it may seem, according to Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the United Nationals Framework Convention on Climate Change. In a May 23 editorial aimed at the Group of Seven countries, which are meeting in Japan this week, Figueres laid out four steps to meeting the temperature target in the Paris climate change agreement. “The G7 members, by virtue of their size and carbon footprint, … can use their influence to trigger actions that can put the world firmly onto the 2-1.5°C pathway,” Figueres wrote.
First, Figueres wrote, G7 nations should halt support of any overseas development that “flies in the face” of the Paris Agreement. Support should instead go toward helping developing nations implement their climate action plans. Third, G7 members should be developing forward-looking policy and standards to “liberate far greater private financial flows into the green, cleaner investments needed to rapidly peak and then cut global emissions,” Figueres wrote. Finally, G7 nations need to forge greater partnerships between companies and central and local governments.