‘Midst of a climate breakdown’: Climate change demands immediate attention, say leaders at Milken summit

Ms Anna Marsden, managing director of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, said: “We’re really in untold times with regards to how some of these ecosystems are surviving and are able to survive.”
 
In April, temperatures at the Great Barrier Reef soared to a 400-year high.
 
Mr Mark Dalio, founder and co-CEO of non-profit initiative OceanX, said ocean health is crucial to absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. 
 
“It might not be top of mind for folks in terms of understanding that really, the oceans are the ones that are going to protect us in the long run,” he added. 
 
The ocean is central to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and stabilising the earth’s climate, according to the United Nations. 
 
It is the world’s largest “carbon sink” that absorbs about 25 per cent of all CO2 emissions, and captures 90 per cent of the excess heat generated by these emissions.
 
Warming seawater causes detrimental changes to underwater life and reduces the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide, diminishing its role as a vital buffer against the impacts of climate change, said the UN. 
At the Milken summit this week, members of the government, private sector and scientific community converged in Singapore to discuss the pressing challenges of climate change, and what needs to be done to tackle the global issue. 
 
Ms Marsden noted that people are “really fatigued” about big climate action announcements involving millions of dollars. 
 
“(People) are really over motherhood statements. Politicians seem to like a short cycle,” she said, adding that many politicians tend to set targets that can be easily achieved in just a few years. 
 
But this is “a long game”, Ms Marsden stressed. 
 
“We need sustained, strategic investment, and we need to take the public on the journey. I don’t think they want to know that we’ve got a cure, but they want to understand progress,” she added. 
 
“We’ve got to have an honest, authentic conversation with the public and take them on the journey and inspire them to do their part.”
 
Accomplished mountaineer Peter Hillary, chairman of the Hillary Himalayan Foundation, agreed, adding that individual action on climate change might be small but still matters.  
 
Collectively, there can be a “substantial change” to address the issue, he noted. 
 
“At times, I do feel negative about it. It is a huge undertaking, but I believe in the power of people, and I think what we did during the (COVID-19) pandemic was truly remarkable. 
 
“Everyone acknowledged that there was something we had to do, and we did it. But to be honest, the pandemic was minor in comparison to the challenge of climate change.”
Mr Hillary, the son of the late Sir Edmund Hillary – who along with Nepalese sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest – highlighted the rate at which glaciers in the Himalayas are melting.
 
“We are seeing that the glaciers in the Himalayas – which are quite large glaciers – are receding,” said Mr Hillary, who has also ascended Mount Everest himself. 
 
“When they start to recede too quickly, you get little lakes forming, and they’re only held back by a loose moraine. And every so often, they can catastrophically release.”
 
But climbers are not risk-averse people, he pointed out. 
 
“So people are still prepared to go and particularly, professional climbers are very prepared to take on these sorts of risks.” 
 
Besides climbers, communities living there are also affected. 
 
“It’s really for the people down valley that I think (face) the greatest danger, through these glacial lake outburst events that literally are unstoppable,” said Mr Hillary of the mountain tsunamis that can take out whatever is in their path.
The world is “in the midst of a climate breakdown”, said Shruti Narayan, managing director of regions and mayoral engagement at C40 Cities, a global network of mayors of the world’s major cities working to tackle climate change.
 
“The first thing is to really know where we are with the climate crisis,” she said, adding that climate action plans then need to be data-driven and evidence-based. “Because you can’t manage what you can’t measure.”
 
She also called for a complete paradigm shift in governance. 
 
“We cannot look at governance and climate separately. It has to be one,” she added. 
 
“Everything needs to include climate as a lens, and that is when we can really deliver the urgent action that we need.”
 
Expectations for climate action have grown in the lead up to the annual UN-led climate change talks. 
 
This year, the COP29 summit will take place in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku in November.
 
The main task is to agree on a new global target for climate finance for developing countries.
 
Delegates will also be under pressure to do more on mitigation, including reducing emissions, while exploring new ideas on how countries can adapt to the changes in the years to come.