Environment

Senior climate adviser with the environmental group Greenpeace

03 Sep 2021 4 4

Alex Wang

Inserted 2 years ago

“Chinese leaders have long said they are engaged in climate action not because of outside pressure, but because it benefits China and the world-at-large. If that is so, then US-China tensions should not slow Chinese climate action.”

Climate expert and professor at UCLA

02 Sep 2021 3 5

Shuo Li

Inserted 2 years ago

“The G2 (China and the United States) need to realise that beyond their bilateral oasis and desert, the whole planet is at stake. If they don't make joint climate progress fast enough, it is soon all going to be desert.”

Senior climate adviser with the environmental group Greenpeace

02 Sep 2021 3 5

Gene Grace

Inserted 2 years ago

“Until these overly burdensome costs are resolved, our nation will likely miss out on living up to its potential to deploy homegrown clean energy projects on our public lands - and the jobs and economic development that come with it.”

General counsel for clean energy trade group American Clean Power Association

31 Aug 2021 2 3

Janea Scott

Inserted 2 years ago

“We recognize the world has changed since the last time we looked at this and updates need to be made.”

Senior counselor to the U.S. Interior Department’s assistant secretary for land and minerals

31 Aug 2021 0 1

Katie Lotterhos

Inserted 2 years ago

“Humans are slow learners and climate is changing faster than our systems for regulation in management can keep up. And so as long as we're in this pile of bureaucracy, where we can't adapt our social systems and our management systems to the speed at which climate is changing, it's going to exacerbate climate change even more so.”

Cbc

Associate professor of marine and environmental sciences at Northeastern University's Marine Science Center in Nahant, Maine

26 Aug 2021 1 3

Rick Spinrad

Inserted 2 years ago

“The extreme events we are seeing worldwide - from record-shattering heat waves to extreme rainfall to raging wildfires - are all long-predicted and well-understood impacts of a warmer world. They will continue to get more severe until the world cuts its emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases down to net-zero.”

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrator

14 Aug 2021 6 6

António Guterres

Inserted 2 years ago

“This report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet. Countries should also end all new fossil fuel exploration and production and shift fossil fuel subsidies into renewable energy.”

Secretary-general of the United Nations

09 Aug 2021 2 3

Piers Forster

Inserted 2 years ago

“We can expect a significant jump in extreme weather over the next 20 or 30 years. Things are unfortunately likely to get worse than they are today.”

Nytimes

Climate scientist at the University of Leeds

09 Aug 2021 1 3

Janez Lenarčič

Inserted 2 years ago

“We are mobilising one of Europe's biggest ever common firefighting operations as multiple fires affect several countries simultaneously. This shows the need to prioritise crisis response also at European level. The EU stands in full solidarity with Greece, North Macedonia, Albania, Italy and Turkey, at this difficult time. I am very thankful to all the countries who have offered help for their tangible solidarity. Our thoughts are with all those affected and with the first responders who are risking their lives to battle the fires.”

Europeanwesternbalkans

European Commissioner for Crisis Management

08 Aug 2021 7 2

Niklas Boers

Inserted 2 years ago

“The signs of destabilisation being visible already is something that I wouldn't have expected and that I find scary. It's something you just can't [allow to] happen. It is not known what level of CO2 would trigger an AMOC [Atlantic meridional overturning circulation] collapse. So the only thing to do is keep emissions as low as possible. The likelihood of this extremely high-impact event happening increases with every gram of CO2 that we put into the atmosphere.”

Researcher from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany

05 Aug 2021 3 2

Federation of Korea Industries

Inserted 2 years ago

“The committee set the carbon emission reduction goal too high. In all three of the scenarios, the industry sector should cut about 80 percent of its 2018 level emissions by 2050. If we set unreasonable goals in Korea, which has a manufacturing-oriented industrial structure, we are concerned about job losses and a decline in the international competitiveness of manufactured products. Nuclear power plants are able to provide stable power without emitting greenhouse gases. As the United States, Japan and other countries also use nuclear power as a means of realizing carbon neutrality, Korea should include measures to expand nuclear power plants in its plan.”

Statement by the Federation of Korea Industries

05 Aug 2021 4 4

Yun Sun-jin

Inserted 2 years ago

“We have established a vision for a carbon neutral society that is safe and sustainable, and presented a draft scenario based on five principles: responsibility, inclusion, fairness, rationality and innovation.”

Co-chairman of the committee on Carbon Neutrality and a professor at the Seoul National University Graduate School of Environmental Studies

05 Aug 2021 2 2

Janez Lenarčič

Inserted 2 years ago

“We are working around the clock to send help as fires rage across Europe. I thank Cyprus, Czechia, France, Slovenia and the Netherlands for swiftly deploying firefighting airplanes, helicopters and a team of firefighters to support countries heavily affected by forest fires. At this time, as several Mediterranean countries are facing fires, the EU Civil Protection is making sure that our firefighting tools in place are used at maximum capacity. This is an excellent example of EU solidarity in times of need.”

Balkaninsight

European Commissioner for Crisis Management

04 Aug 2021 2 1

Simon Donner

Inserted 2 years ago

“The fire creates the storm, and then the storm creates lightning, which can cause more fires. That runaway feedback is the dangerous part.”

Cbc

Interdisciplinary climate scientist and geography professor at the University of British Columbia

27 Jul 2021 2 2

Jerng Dong-wook

Inserted 2 years ago

“Carbon neutrality is a trend that cannot be avoided to limit global warming and it has become the top-tier energy policy around the world now. We have to review the nuclear phase-out policy from the perspective of carbon neutrality, and in the case of Korea, nuclear energy is indispensable as a way to achieve net zero. It is meaningless to attack the current government for advocating the nuclear phase-out policy. Instead, we should focus on how to restructure Korea's energy mix to reduce carbon emissions. Climate change seriously threatens biodiversity - a 1.5-degree Celsius rise in average temperature may put some 30 percent of species at risk of extinction. The scale of danger cannot be compared to nuclear accidents. Over 180 countries do not gather together to discuss the danger of nuclear energy, but they do for climate agreement. I am not saying no to a nuclear phase-out, but the fight against climate change and carbon neutrality is the bigger subject on the agenda of energy policy. If we can reach net zero without nuclear energy, it would be great. However, it is virtually impossible without an astronomical amount of money.”

Professor at the School of Energy Systems Engineering at Chung-Ang University

25 Jul 2021 4 6

Im Sung-hee

Inserted 2 years ago

“The Moon administration declared the nuclear phase-out plan, but in fact the number of nuclear power plants in Korea did not decrease under the Moon government. What he only did was cancel the planned construction of new nuclear plants. The government should legally establish its energy policy and come up with realistic plans to transition to green, renewable energy to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.”

Energy expert with Green Korea United

25 Jul 2021 3 5

Kristie Ebi

Inserted 2 years ago

“We saw the forecasts and it was hard to believe as we don't really have heatwaves like that. In Seattle it's usually so overcast during June we call it Juneuary. You see the heatwaves hit other places and you know it's bad but there's not the sense of urgency until it hits you.”

Professor at the University of Washington who studies global warming and its effects on public health

22 Jul 2021 1 3

Angela Merkel

Inserted 2 years ago

“I am equipped with sufficient sense for science to see that objective circumstances demand that we can't continue at the current pace but have to up the tempo.”

Chancellor of Germany

22 Jul 2021 0 3

Johnny Chan

Inserted 2 years ago

“Such extreme weather events will likely become more frequent in the future. What is needed is for governments to develop strategies to adapt to such changes.”

Professor of atmospheric science at City University of Hong Kong

21 Jul 2021 1 3

Aisen Nikolaev

Inserted 2 years ago

“Obviously, there is only one reason: Global climate change. We can see how it's getting hotter in Yakutia every year. We are living through the hottest, driest summer in the history of meteorological measurements since the end of the 19th century. Undoubtedly, these [wildfires] are a very serious challenge facing our republic, and our country in general. Yakutia makes up one-third of Russia's forests; the country should be very mindful and careful with its green lungs.”

Themoscowtimes

Head of the Sakha Republic in Russia

20 Jul 2021 1 4

Carlo Buontempo

Inserted 2 years ago

“With climate change we do expect all hydro-meteorological extremes to become more extreme. What we have seen in Germany is broadly consistent with this trend.”

Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts

16 Jul 2021 1 5

Lina Burnelius

Inserted 2 years ago

“Fit for 55 is harmful to forests and insufficient to tackle climate change. We are in desperate need of honest policies that include all our emissions in the statistics. [The European Commission had chosen] to sacrifice forests rather than admit that current EU bioenergy policy is making the climate crisis worse. Enough with the burning. We cannot just switch from burning one climate disastrous fuel to another.”

Project leader at Protect the Forest Sweden

16 Jul 2021 3 5

Bill Nelson

Inserted 2 years ago

“The combination of the Moon's gravitational pull, rising sea levels, and climate change will continue to exacerbate coastal flooding on our coastlines and across the world. NASA's Sea Level Change Team is providing crucial information so that we can plan, protect, and prevent damage to the environment and people's livelihoods affected by flooding.”

NASA Administrator

15 Jul 2021 6 4

Ursula von der Leyen

Inserted 2 years ago

“The infernos and hurricanes we have seen over the last few weeks are only a very small window into what our future could look like. But by acting now, when we still have the policy choices, we can do things another way … Europe was the first continent to declare to be climate neutral in 2050, and now we are the very first ones to put a concrete road map on the table.”

President of the European Commission

14 Jul 2021 2 2

Christopher Harley

Inserted 2 years ago

“It was so hot when I was out with a student that we collected data for a little bit and then retreated to the shade and ate frozen grapes. But of course, the mussels, sea stars and clams don't have that option. But when the temperatures get above that, those are just unsurvivable conditions. A square meter of mussel bed could be home to several dozen or even one hundred species. You can fit thousands on to an area the size of a stove top. And there are hundreds of kilometres of rocky beach that are hospitable to mussels. Each time you scale up, the numbers just keep getting bigger and bigger. And that's just mussels. A lot of sea life would have died.”

Marine biologist at the University of British Columbia

08 Jul 2021 2 4

Ryan Ness

Inserted 2 years ago

“We are now committed to a certain degree of warming in the world because of the emissions of the past. So while, in the longer term, it's absolutely critical to reduce greenhouse gases as much as possible, as fast as possible, to keep things from getting even worse, there is a certain amount of climate change that we can no longer avoid. And the only way to really deal with that is to prepare, to adapt and to become more resilient to this change in climate.”

Cbc

Adaptation research director for the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices

02 Jul 2021 1 3

Ekrem Imamoglu

Inserted 2 years ago

“More important than everything else, we are listening to the loud objections from leading scientists. We never heard a scientist saying 'This project is beneficial'. This alone proves that the project is a disaster. I was elected by people to resist this cement canal.”

Balkaninsight

Istanbul mayor

28 Jun 2021 1 3

Kristie Ebi

Inserted 2 years ago

“We know from evidence around the world that climate change is increasing the frequency, intensity and duration of heatwaves. We're going to have to get used to this going forward.”

Professor at the University of Washington who studies global warming and its effects on public health

27 Jun 2021 3 4

David Phillips

Inserted 2 years ago

“I like to break a record, but this is like shattering and pulverising them. It's warmer in parts of western Canada than in Dubai.”

Environment Canada’s senior climatologist

27 Jun 2021 1 1

Pinar Giritlioglu

Inserted 2 years ago

“Through this new canal, the Black Sea and the Marmara waters will get mixed. This will have ecological consequences and imperil an already tenuous water supply and marine life.”

Vice president of the Chamber of Urban Planners

26 Jun 2021 4 2

Simon Donner

Inserted 2 years ago

“As the climate warms, it basically means it's shifting the distribution of the weather. So we're going to have more events like this and fewer cool summers.”

Cbc

Interdisciplinary climate scientist and geography professor at the University of British Columbia

25 Jun 2021 0 4

John Abatzoglou

Inserted 2 years ago

“The southwestern US is in a protracted drought period, or megadrought, of the likes we haven't seen in the observational record in the last millennia. In the west this year, there's an astronomical fraction of land that is experiencing severe drought. This past winter and spring, lacklustre precipitation plus warm temperatures meant low snowpack in the mountains, resulting in rapid drying of the land surface.”

Associate professor at the University of California researching climate and weather

17 Jun 2021 2 2

Ertug Ercin

Inserted 2 years ago

“Climate change impacts are not just happening within your borders. The study gives evidence of how we are interconnected globally through trade and how climate-driven disasters outside our borders can touch our lives directly and can be really relevant to our society and economy. We cannot just ignore it any more.”

Researcher at R2Water Research and Consultancy and Vrije University in the Netherlands

15 Jun 2021 0 3

Markus Rex

Inserted 2 years ago

“The disappearance of summer sea ice in the Arctic is one of the first landmines in this minefield, one of the tipping points that we set off first when we push warming too far. And one can essentially ask if we haven't already stepped on this mine and already set off the beginning of the explosion. Only evaluation in the coming years will allow us to determine if we can still save the year-round Arctic sea ice through forceful climate protection or whether we have already passed this important tipping point in the climate system.”

Scientist who led the MOSAiC expedition to the Arctic

15 Jun 2021 4 4

Carmen Morales-Caselles

Inserted 2 years ago

“We were not surprised about plastic being 80% of the litter, but the high proportion of takeaway items did surprise us, which will not just be McDonald's litter, but water bottles, beverage bottles like Coca-Cola, and cans. This information will make it easier for policymakers to actually take action to try to turn off the tap of marine litter flowing into the ocean, rather than just clean it up.”

Researcher at the University of Cádiz, Spain

10 Jun 2021 0 3

Natalie Mahowald

Inserted 2 years ago

“Reaching 50% higher carbon dioxide than pre-industrial is really setting a new benchmark and not in a good way. If we want to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, we need to work much harder to cut carbon dioxide emissions and right away.”

Cornell University climate scientist

08 Jun 2021 2 3

Clare Goodess

Inserted 2 years ago

“They tell us that people are already dying on every continent due to increases in heat stress caused by human-induced climate change. This highlights the imperative for global action to cut greenhouse gas emissions. It is more important than ever that meaningful agreements emerge from [UN climate conference] Cop26 in November.”

Senior research fellow from the school of environmental sciences at the University of East Anglia

31 May 2021 2 3

Amina Mohammed

Inserted 2 years ago

“We are running out of time to bend the emissions curve and cut emissions by 45% globally by 2030 and that's from 2010 levels. This means all main emitters must deliver enhanced NDCs [nationally determined contribution] this year with concrete and credible targets that we can follow through to 2030. Important investments in the targets we set for 2030 will determine the outcome of credibility of the 2050 targets. And it means no new coal starting now, phasing out coal in OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] countries by 2030, and in the rest of the world by 2040.”

Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations

20 May 2021 3 3

Neville Ash

Inserted 2 years ago

“Protected areas are only part of the solution for addressing the biodiversity crisis and the opportunities ahead of us. They need to sit alongside wider sustainability measures, sustainable consumption and production patterns, aligning financial flows to the benefit of nature and reducing perverse subsidies.”

Director of Unep’s Conservation Monitoring Centre

19 May 2021 2 3

Paul Pearce-Kelly

Inserted 2 years ago

“Coral reefs are the most diverse ecosystems on Earth and we want to show people how wonderful they are. However, we also want to highlight the research and conservation efforts that are now being carried out to try to save them from the threat of global warming. We want the public to see what is being done to try to save these wonders. You can think of the coral reefs as the canary in the mine. They have to survive really harsh conditions - crashing waves, erosion and other factors - and when things start to go wrong in the oceans, then corals will be the first to react. And that is exactly what we are seeing now. Coral reefs are dying and they are telling us that all is not well with our planet.”

Senior curator of invertebrates and fish at the Zoological Society of London

16 May 2021 3 2

Hafed al-Ghwell

Inserted 2 years ago

“When an estimated 600 million people are faced with life-threatening heatwaves, subsequent food and water shortages, potential for renewed conflicts due to the weaponization (and/or monetization) of strategic resources and greater social fragmentation, the only way to survive is to head for cooler, resource-abundant and still thriving parts of the world.”

Arabnews

Senior Fellow with the Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins University

15 May 2021 4 8

Paul Bledsoe

Inserted 2 years ago

“Eventually we will need a Republican party that has original, effective climate change ideas but right now it's just utterly pathetic, it's driven by grievance and exploiting resentments. Biden's proposals are very popular and clearly Republicans are getting desperate. They just aren't interested in solving problems or governing, they have no proper identity. That will remain the same as long as Trump dominates the party.”

Former Clinton White House, US Senate, and Interior Department official, is a leading expert on politics and policy

14 May 2021 3 2

Peter Meijer

Inserted 2 years ago

“Plenty of members of the [Republican] conference are still in perpetual skeptic mode. When you talk to younger conservatives, the issue of climate is No 1 or 2, but for older generations that's not the case. It's important for the future of our country and the party we stop viewing it as a partisan issue. It's moving a very large ship a matter of degrees. It won't happen overnight. Climate is one of the areas I was concerned about in terms of the long-term trajectory of the party. We are seeing first steps in messaging and proposals. There's a recognition that we have not been on the right side of this and we need to get on the right side of this.”

Member of the Republican Party - U.S. Representative for Michigan

14 May 2021 1 5

Jean-Pierre Wigneron

Inserted 2 years ago

“We half-expected it, but it is the first time that we have figures showing that the Brazilian Amazon has flipped, and is now a net emitter. We don't know at what point the changeover could become irreversible.”

Scientist at France's National Institute for Agronomic Research (INRA)

30 Apr 2021 1 3

Su Wei

Inserted 2 years ago

“China's energy structure is dominated by coal power. This is an objective reality. Because renewable energy (sources such as) wind and solar power are intermittent and unstable, we must rely on a stable power source. We have no other choice. For a period of time, we may need to use coal power as a point of flexible adjustment.”

Cnbc

Deputy secretary-general of the (China) National Development and Reform Commission

29 Apr 2021 5 3

Romain Hugonnet

Inserted 2 years ago

“A doubling of the thinning rates in 20 years for glaciers outside Greenland and Antarctica tells us we need to change the way we live. We need to act now. It can be difficult to get the public to understand why glaciers are important because they seem so remote, but they affect many things in the global water cycle including regional hydrology, and by changing too rapidly, can lead to the alteration or collapse of downstream ecosystems.”

University of Toulouse (glaciologist)

28 Apr 2021 4 2

Joe Biden

Inserted 2 years ago

“America is back. We rejoined the Paris Agreement and are ready to rally the world to tackle the climate crisis. Let's do this.”

Twitter

President of the United States

22 Apr 2021 1 4

Angela Merkel

Inserted 3 years ago

“I'm delighted to see that the United States is back, is back to work together with us in climate politics. Because there can be no doubt about the world needing your contribution if we really want to fulfill our ambitious goals.”

Apnews

Chancellor of Germany

22 Apr 2021 2 3

John Kerry

Inserted 3 years ago

“Is it enough [carbon-reduction pledges by the nations participating at the climate summit]? No, but it's the best we can do today and prove we can begin to move [forward]. We're going to make our economies hum to reach out for the better future that we want to leave future generations.”

U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate in Biden's administration

22 Apr 2021 0 2

Joe Biden

Inserted 3 years ago

“Particularly those of us that represent the world's largest economies, we have to step up. Let's run that race, win a more sustainable future than we have now, overcome the existential crisis of our time. This is a moral imperative, an economic imperative, a moment of peril, but also a moment of extraordinary possibilities. Time is short but I believe we can do this and I believe we will do this. This moment demands urgency – good ideas and good intentions aren't good enough. We need to ensure the financing is there, public and private, to meet the moment on climate change and help us seize the opportunity for good jobs, strong economies and a more secure world.”

President of the United States

22 Apr 2021 0 4

Xi Jinping

Inserted 3 years ago

“We need to work on the basis of international law, follow the principle of equity and justice, and focus on effective actions. We need to uphold the UN-centered international system, comply with the objectives and principles laid out in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Paris Agreement, and strive to deliver the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development... We must join hands, not point fingers at each other; we must maintain continuity, not reverse course easily; and we must honor commitments, not go back on promises.”

Globaltimes

President of the People's Republic of China

22 Apr 2021 4 4

Ryan Fitzpatrick

Inserted 3 years ago

“The Biden administration is coming in with heavy hitters who know the people they'll be meeting with. They know the process, and they know how the negotiations work. That we have a strong roster of expertise and seasoned professionals is very helpful. There's not much of a learning curve. A lot of people have name recognition and their presence on behalf of the US government carries a lot of weight. Everybody knows that Americans like to compete and win, but we can be partners [while] angling to get our share of the pie. Joe Biden pitched the American Jobs Plan and used the word 'climate' just once in Pittsburgh. But this is the most game-changing policy proposal on climate change that the US has ever seen.”

Director of the climate and energy programme at Third Way

21 Apr 2021 2 4

Rachel Cleetus

Inserted 3 years ago

“The US has a lot of ground to make up after four years of being on the sidelines, and it is a welcome change to have an administration that has promised to be guided by the science. The nation and the world need the US to step up to its responsibilities. Leading by example, rather than by rhetoric, is what is needed.”

Policy director with the Climate and Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists

21 Apr 2021 0 3

John Kerry

Inserted 3 years ago

“The US is confident that the government of Japan is in very full consultations with the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency]. The IAEA has set up a very rigorous process and I know that Japan has weighed all the options and the effects and they've been very transparent about the decision and the process. We think we have confidence in the ability of IAEA and Japan and our relationship with the agency. We need to see how it progresses, and how they do, but we don't think it is appropriate for the US to jump into a process that's already underway and where there are very clear rules and expectations.”

U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate in Biden's administration

18 Apr 2021 3 2

John Podesta

Inserted 3 years ago

“I think in Obama's mind, it was always about tackling the climate challenge, not making the climate challenge the central element of your economic policy. Biden's team is different. It is really the core of their economic strategy to make transformation of the energy systems the driver of innovation, growth, and job creation, justice and equity.”

American political consultant who served as White House Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton from 1998 to 2001 and Counselor to President Barack Obama from 2014 to 2015

16 Apr 2021 2 4

Kazue Suzuki

Inserted 3 years ago

“The Japanese government has once again failed the people of Fukushima. The government has taken the wholly unjustified decision to deliberately contaminate the Pacific Ocean with radioactive wastes. Rather than using the best available technology to minimize radiation hazards by storing and processing the water over the longer term, they have opted for the cheapest option.”

Climate change and energy campaigner at Greenpeace Japan

13 Apr 2021 3 1

Ken Buesseler

Inserted 3 years ago

“My concern is about non-tritium radioactive contaminants that still remain in the tanks at high levels. These other contaminants are all of greater health risk than tritium and accumulate more readily in seafood and sea floor sediments.”

Senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts

13 Apr 2021 2 1

Yoshihide Suga

Inserted 3 years ago

“Releasing the … treated water is an unavoidable task to decommission the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant and reconstruct the Fukushima area.”

Prime Minister of Japan

13 Apr 2021 2 1

John Kerry

Inserted 3 years ago

“Our hope is that we're going to be able to deal with yes, China. President Biden has made it clear and I've made it clear: none of the other issues we have with China - and there are issues - is held hostage to or is engaged in a trade for what we need to do on climate.”

U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate in Biden's administration

03 Apr 2021 2 3

Rebecca Solnit

Inserted 3 years ago

“Among the striking phenomena of the early weeks of the pandemic were air quality and birdsong. In the quiet as human activity halted, many people reported hearing birds singing, and across the world air pollution levels dropped dramatically. In some places in India, the Himalayas were visible again, as they had not been for decades, meaning that one of the subtle losses of pollution was vistas. According to CNBC, at the outset of the pandemic, 'New Delhi recorded a 60% fall of PM2.5 from 2019 levels, Seoul registered a 54% drop, while the fall in China's Wuhan came in at 44%.' Returning to normal means drowning out the birds and blurring out the mountains and accepting 8.7 million air pollution deaths a year.”

Guardian US columnist

02 Apr 2021 4 3

Ed Miliband

Inserted 3 years ago

“We need truth-telling from the government. It is not just about net zero targets for the middle of this century, it is not just about coalition for action in various areas … and it is certainly not about Boris Johnson having a moment to have a good photo-opportunity. This is incredibly serious and incredibly hard and we have to be honest.”

Former Labour leader who is now heading the party’s climate team

29 Mar 2021 1 2

Erin O'Toole

Inserted 3 years ago

“The debate is over, climate change is real. We will have a serious and comprehensive plan on climate change to reduce emissions. It's important to me as a father of young children. As a member of parliament, climate change, and fighting it, is important to the Conservative Party of Canada. Younger voters expect that from us.”

Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada

20 Mar 2021 1 3

Natasa Kovacevic

Inserted 3 years ago

“Montenegro has no capacity to monitor and control oil exploration. Even it's just test exploration in this phase, in future there will be oil platforms on our seashore. It could have a large impact on nature and on tourism, because no one goes on vacation where there are oil platforms. The government should terminate the contract. The potential damage to nature is far greater than the cost of terminating the contract.”

Balkaninsight

Chairman of Steering Committee of the NGO Green Home

18 Mar 2021 3 4

Ulf Büntgen

Inserted 3 years ago

“We're all aware of the cluster of exceptionally hot and dry summers we've had over the past few years. Our results show what we have experienced is extraordinary. The series is unprecedented for the last 2,000 years.”

Professor at Cambridge University

15 Mar 2021 0 4

Jake Sullivan

Inserted 3 years ago

“Over the course of the meeting, a sense of optimism for the future, despite the hard times we're in, was on full display. The leaders did discuss the challenge posed by China, and they made clear that none of them have any illusions about China, but today was not fundamentally about China. Much of the focus was on pressing global crises, including the climate crisis, and COVID-19.”

US National Security Adviser

12 Mar 2021 3 3

Inger Andersen

Inserted 3 years ago

“Reducing food waste would cut greenhouse gas emissions, slow the destruction of nature through land conversion and pollution, enhance the availability of food and thus reduce hunger and save money at a time of global recession. Businesses, governments and citizens around the world have to do their part.”

Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

04 Mar 2021 1 3

Marcus Gover

Inserted 3 years ago

“We are so used to wasting food that we've forgotten its value, and the cost that feeding our growing global population has on the natural world. Like it or not, we in our homes are the most significant part of the problem.”

Head of Wrap, an NGO that helped write the UN report on food wasted

04 Mar 2021 0 3

Hong Nam-ki

Inserted 3 years ago

“We urgently need to ease existing regulations to provide subsidies for purchasing eco-friendly cars and installing more recharging facilities so that we can consequently achieve our goal, which is to distribute more than 300,000 eco-friendly cars within this year.”

Minister of Economy and Finance and Deputy Prime Minister of South Korea

27 Feb 2021 1 3

Ed Matthew

Inserted 3 years ago

“It is simply not true to suggest there is low demand for the green homes grant. The scheme is struggling because it has been poorly administered. It needs to be urgently reformed, not axed. This investment is crucial for kickstarting a green recovery.”

Campaigns director at the climate change thinktank E3G

22 Feb 2021 1 3

Christiana Figueres

Inserted 3 years ago

“It's the political message that is being sent. From a political symbolism perspective, whether it's 100 days or four years, it is basically the same thing. It's not about how many days. It's the political symbolism that the largest economy refuses to see the opportunity of addressing climate change. We've lost too much time.”

Former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

19 Feb 2021 0 3

Qin Li

Inserted 3 years ago

“Numerous studies have noted that air pollution is associated with lots of adverse pregnancy events. Approximately 30% of infertile couples have unexplained infertility. [Our study] indicates that small-particle pollution could be an unignorable risk factor for infertility.”

Director of the infertility research at the Centre for Reproductive Medicine at Peking University Third hospital in China

17 Feb 2021 2 2

Angel Gurría

Inserted 3 years ago

“The single most urgent, emergent, immediate risk is to combat Covid-19, and its health, economic and social consequences. But the single most important intergenerational responsibility is to protect the planet … We are on a collision course with nature and we have to change course for future generations. To protect biodiversity, to stop it from being degraded; to protect soil; to protect lands and water; to protect the oceans from the worst overfishing; to protect coral reefs, which are in danger of disappearing at 2C [of global heating]; to protect mangroves, which are extraordinary carbon sinks; glaciers and so on. We are already seeing manifestations of how badly this [climate change] is happening, and this is going to get worse. The signals are that this going to be even more serious.”

Secretary-General of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

17 Feb 2021 3 3

Adrián Fernández Bremauntz

Inserted 3 years ago

“Instead of thinking of a transition from coal and fossil fuels, he's thinking of using more coal and petroleum. No other G20 country has such abnormal or retrograde energy policies as this government [Mexican government]. It's not going to advance us toward our climate goals.”

Director of the environmental organisation Iniciativa Climática de México

15 Feb 2021 2 3

Vito Crimi

Inserted 3 years ago

“Since the first round of consultations with the political parties, Draghi put the ecology transition at the top of his agenda.”

Leader of the Movement 5-Star

13 Feb 2021 0 2

Mario Draghi

Inserted 3 years ago

“Ours will be an ecological government.”

Prime Minister of Italy

13 Feb 2021 0 2

Lucia von Reusner

Inserted 3 years ago

“Supermarkets need to go beyond their sustainability rhetoric by setting strict requirements for their suppliers, banning deforestation, monitoring their suppliers for compliance, and dropping contracts with the worst offenders like JBS.”

Senior campaign director of international campaign organisation Mighty Earth

13 Feb 2021 1 3

Mary Ng

Inserted 3 years ago

“This government is clear around our ambitions and objectives around climate change and I absolutely believe that trade and climate and the economy all are synergistic.”

Bloomberg

Canada Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade

12 Feb 2021 0 3

Dan Jorgensen

Inserted 3 years ago

“This is truly a great moment for Denmark and for the global green transition. The energy hub in the North Sea will be the largest construction project in Danish history. [The island] will make a big contribution to the realisation of the enormous potential for European offshore wind.”

Danish Energy Minister

04 Feb 2021 1 3

Tim Benton

Inserted 3 years ago

“Politicians are still saying 'my job is to make food cheaper for you', no matter how toxic it is from a planetary or human health perspective. We must stop arguing that we have to subsidise the food system in the name of the poor and instead deal with the poor by bringing them out of poverty.”

Professor at Chatham House

03 Feb 2021 0 3

John Kerry

Inserted 3 years ago

“There is no adapting to a 3C or 4C world, except for the very richest and most privileged. Some of the impacts are inevitable, but if we don't act boldly and immediately by building resilience, we will see dramatic reversals in economic development for everybody, and the poorest and most vulnerable communities will pay the highest price.”

U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate in Biden's administration

29 Jan 2021 0 4

Harvard University

Inserted 3 years ago

“The entire life cycle of bottled water uses fossil fuels, contributes to global warming, and causes pollution.”

Harvard University’s Office for Sustainability

28 Jan 2021 0 4

Cassie Flynn

Inserted 3 years ago

“The voice of the people is clear - they want action on climate change. If 64% of the world’s people are believing in a climate emergency then it helps governments to respond to the climate crisis as an emergency. The key message is that, as governments are making these high-stakes decisions, the people are with them. We are at a fork in the road and the poll says 'this is how your future generations are thinking, in specific policy choices' - it brings a way to envision the future.”

UN Development Programme’s strategic adviser on climate change

27 Jan 2021 0 3

Inès Otosaka

Inserted 3 years ago

“As well as contributing to global mean sea level rise, mountain glaciers are also critical as a freshwater resource for local communities. The retreat of glaciers around the world is therefore of crucial importance, at both local and global scales.”

Report co-author and a PhD researcher at the University of Leeds centre for polar observation and modelling

25 Jan 2021 1 3

Thomas Slater

Inserted 3 years ago

“Sea level rise on this scale will have very serious impacts on coastal communities this century.”

Lead author and research fellow at the centre for polar observation and modelling at the University of Leeds

25 Jan 2021 2 3

Chris Packham

Inserted 3 years ago

“EU legislation on the environment has been quite robust, on things like the birds directive and the habitats directive. But in the first few days of January, we have seen our government ship our problematic unsorted plastic waste around the world to countries who don’t have the capacity to deal with it. [He compared the practice to someone from a] posh neighbourhood chucking your rubbish into the garden of someone from the not-so-well-off neighbourhood next door and forgetting about it. Frankly, it’s irresponsible and embarrassing when we have the capacity and technology to deal with it, if only we put in the resources.”

Naturalist and TV presenter

22 Jan 2021 3 2

Eduardo Zattara

Inserted 3 years ago

“With citizen science and the ability to share data, records are going up exponentially, but the number of species reported in these records is going down. It’s not a bee cataclysm yet, but what we can say is that wild bees are not exactly thriving. Something is happening to the bees, and something needs to be done. We cannot wait until we have absolute certainty because we rarely get there in natural sciences. The next step is prodding policymakers into action while we still have time. The bees cannot wait.”

Lead author and a biologist from the Universidad Nacional del Comahue and Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council (Conicet)

22 Jan 2021 0 4

Aleqa Hammond

Inserted 3 years ago

“Greenland wants international co-operation, regardless of whether it's the United States or not. The Arctic must be very aware about the agenda behind the Americans' interest … and be sure that the Arctic people are the ones to decide in the end if this should be or not.”

Cbc

Chair of Greenland's parliamentary foreign and security policy committee

20 Jan 2021 4 4

Inger Andersen

Inserted 3 years ago

“We are not saying we can adapt our way out of climate change, but the impacts of failing to invest in adaptation to climate change will be very severe, and it is the poorest in wealthy countries and the poorest in the world who will pay the highest price, and who are most exposed to these impacts. The more we can expedite adaption investments, the lower the human costs and the economic costs will be. It makes good sense for society.”

Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

14 Jan 2021 0 5

Tamielle Brunt

Inserted 3 years ago

“It’s scary to think that we have already had these populations disappear under our noses. Because of how elusive they are, we could be losing them without knowing because we’re just not regularly monitoring them, Historically there [are] articles describing platypus as being quite prolific in some waterways [in greater Brisbane]. The fact that in a 10 or 20-year timeframe they’ve gone out of some of these systems and that we’re seeing things only get worse with urbanisation and climate change – with all these impacts getting worse, it’s a glum future for the platypus.”

Lead author and a researcher at the University of Queensland

08 Jan 2021 2 3

Werner Klink

Inserted 3 years ago

“Even if they told him he would not be allowed to continue, he will have already caused so much damage there’s no way he can take the site back to its original state. Immense, irreversible harm has been done to the nature, potentially to the groundwater, to the forest, the flora, fauna. Musk is a risk-taker, that’s what he does, and he’s banked on the fact they’ll never tell him to demolish his building, particularly when so many jobs are at stake. There’s a considerable danger that the digging will contaminate the groundwater. Just one metre below the surface there is salt water and there are signs it’s rising. If it mixes with the fresh water we’ll have a huge problem on our hands.”

Retired geophysicist, member of the Grünheide’s citizens’ initiative

05 Jan 2021 2 3

Greta Thunberg

Inserted 3 years ago

“I don’t sit and speculate about how the future might turn out, I see no use in doing that. As long as you are doing everything you can now, you can’t let yourself become depressed or anxious.”

Climate Activist

03 Jan 2021 0 3

Denise Hardesty

Inserted 3 years ago

“It’s not new and it’s not surprising and it happens every year, and it’s been growing over the last decade”

Principal research scientist at Australia’s CSIRO science agency and an expert on global plastic pollution

03 Jan 2021 1 4

Shaun Brooks

Inserted 3 years ago

“It’s unprecedented in the Antarctic in terms of the scale of investment and the impact on the environment. Although it is being done in the name of science, very few scientists are enthusiastic. This is more about flag-waving. It is about firming up Australia’s presence and our claim....”

Environmental scientist at the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies of the University at Tasmania

31 Dec 2020 2 4

Kat Kramer

Inserted 3 years ago

“The good news is that, like the vaccine for COVID-19, we do know how to fix the climate crisis. We need to keep fossil fuels in the ground, boost clean energy investment and help those who are suffering on the frontline.”

Author of the report titled 'Counting the cost 2020: A year of climate breakdown' by charity Christian Aid

28 Dec 2020 1 2

David Williams

Inserted 3 years ago

“Ultimately, we need to change what we eat and how it is produced if we are going to save wildlife on a global scale.”

Professor at Leeds University

21 Dec 2020 0 3

Jan Haverkamp

Inserted 3 years ago

“Floating reactors are a recipe for disaster. Including all of the flaws and risks of larger land-based nuclear power stations. On top of that, they face extra risks from the unpredictability of operation in coastal areas and transport – particularly in a loaded state – over the high seas. Think storms, think tsunamis”

Senior expert nuclear energy and energy policy at Greenpeace Nederland

17 Dec 2020 1 4

Nathaniel Keohane

Inserted 3 years ago

“The [Climate Ambition] Summit captured and reflected the momentum of recent months, but didn’t push much beyond it. The world is waiting for Biden to bring the US back into the Paris agreement, and will be looking for how ambitious the US is willing to be in its NDC [nationally determined contributions].”

Senior vice-president at the Environmental Defense Fund

14 Dec 2020 4 2

Joe Biden

Inserted 3 years ago

“I’ll immediately start working with my counterparts around the world to do all that we possibly can, including by convening the leaders of major economies for a climate summit within my first 100 days in office … We’ll elevate the incredible work cities, states and businesses have been doing to help reduce emissions and build a cleaner future. We’ll listen to and engage closely with the activists, including young people, who have continued to sound the alarm and demand change from those in power.”