Good afternoon everyone and welcome to EESI's congressional briefing this afternoon on the topic of what came out of the latest global and That is much better, right? So anyway, my name is Carol Werner I'm the executive director of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute for any of you who have not been at one of our briefings before EESI is An organization that has been around for over 30 years We were formed by bipartisan congressional caucus and set up to basically be a source of solid credible Timely information on energy and environmental issues to work together to find ways to build consensus and to better Understand the issues provide for better informed policy discussion and to work together towards the identification of Win-win policy options So an important piece of our work for many years has been really looking at the science that the impacts of climate change So obviously the topic before us today in terms of thinking about what really came out of The latest round of negotiations that occurred in Bonn with regard to this 23rd Conference of Parties for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change This is a very very important discussion that involves every member nation now of the United Nations so I cannot Overstate how important these negotiations are that literally embody every country of the world as part of the negotiations now and Also in terms of thinking about the impacts of climate upon all of them So we are delighted to have with us this afternoon a panel that brings enormous expertise and a Variety of perspectives with regard to thinking about climate people that were Involved in this latest round of negotiations and in terms also of providing leadership there and we are especially privileged to have with us this afternoon the President of the COP 23 of this 23rd Conference of Parties the ambassador of Fiji Asolomar who is Fiji's ambassador to the US and He has an enormous amount of experience and had received his advanced a Graduate degree in international relations from the International University of Japan and He has more than 15 years experience at the Fiji Ministry of Foreign Affairs and It's also important to Think about this particular role that he has held in terms of he's been the High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Ambassador to Germany Denmark Israel Ireland and the Holy See and He had also been the permanent Secretary of Foreign Affairs For three years and had served as a counselor at the Fiji Embassy in Brussels so he brings an enormous wealth of diplomatic experience and Also looking firsthand at what climate means to an island nation and what it means in terms of providing Leadership internationally. Mr. Ambassador Thank you very much Carol for that introduction and Also for EESI for this opportunity to tell our story from the perspective of a small island Developing state in the middle of the Pacific Ocean To us COP 23 was significant Because it marked the first time a small island developing state presided over the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change process at the outset Fiji's strong desire was to make COP 23 a visionary one Transforming what was initially expected to be a technical COP One that is focusing primarily on the details of the Paris guidelines and make it into an inspirational political momentum for implementation This was achieved by putting a human face and story to the recent devastating extreme weather events that have affected millions of people across the globe with heat waves droughts tropical cyclones and dust storm and Fiji did this by introducing a uniquely Pacific Island cultural concept known as the Mboulos spirit to the climate conference Which infuses both the formal negotiations and the climate action zone with a sense of urgency warmth inclusiveness and transparency For a process that in the past has often been viewed as closed off and Disconnected from the lives of ordinary people COP 23 legacy was the introduction of the first open states and observer dialogue Government and civil society discussed key issues related to the negotiations discussed implementation of ambitions and how to engage the civil society better in national and international climate action There was general acceptance at the conference that the development challenge posed by climate change is not for government to resolve alone By putting people first and showcasing the human face of the impact of climate change We wanted COP 23 to make a connection between these complex Negotiations and the real everyday concern and aspirations of people living at the frontline of the impact of climate change The opening of the high-level segment of COP 23 for example Featured students from rural Fijian schools affected badly by climate change They shared the reality of living under the devastation of a category 5 hurricane and how the community struggled to recover after the event Telling these stories from around the world as part of the dialogue the Fijian presidency created the in our view an ideal political environment to advance the discussion for the Implementation guidelines for the Paris Agreement and prepare for more ambitious action through the dialogue process we termed as the Talanoa in 2018 The Talanoa is a Pacific Island construct Where village elders gathered to discuss important issues with a view of seeking a win-win solution for the community Rather than individuals and it is premised on building trust amongst Participants so this process of exchanging information and Understanding each other's position is critical in this process of Talanoa and the Talanoa dialogue agreed to inborn Establishers an inclusive and participatory process That I will allow governments Scientists researchers the private sector and the civil society to share stories and showcase best practices on How to raise the ambition of nationally determined contributions as we all know There are two major challenges to the nationally determined Contribution which outlined the target or plan that the country has on reducing their CO2 footprint and the first challenge is that they differ widely in terms of methodologies timelines sectors and scope and Secondly, when you add all the targets together, they do not limit global temperature to the level that we need Currently with the US commitments, it stands at somewhere between 2.3 and 3 degrees increase The Paris Agreement intends to keep global temperature increases to below 2 degrees and For the Pacific Islands continuing existence, we seek to cap it at 1.5 degrees and Scientists have told us that we are already at one degree rise So we must take action now and all the NDCs must scale up Dramatically, the US withdrawal though the second largest emitter in the world Will be a huge blow to this to this effort At COP 23 though Negotiators discussed how to align the NDCs and the methods by which countries can revise them to increase their ambition and urgency This process is an important element in the Paris Agreement implementation guidelines The Talanoa dialogue to take place in 2018 will be the first opportunity where countries Officially take stock of their progress on their NDCs At COP 23 some information shared Gives hope to this process China announced it will be creating a national carbon market But you you has ambitious climate legislation Mexico and Canada are working together to increase cooperation on climate change India is massively scaling up renewable energy France has declared it will make up all lost funding to Climate organizations like IPCC And even domestically in the US according to America's pledge more than 2500 non-federal actors representing a good size of the US economy including cities Counties states businesses and more have pledged their support to the for the Paris Agreement goals if these actors were their own country They'd be the world's third largest economy But a key part of Reducing emissions as indicated in the NDCs is to increase renewable energy and energy efficiency There were a number of announcements made on the margins of the negotiations Which offer support to countries To address their NDCs one of which was the powering past coal alliance Which brings together 25 countries States and regions to accelerate the rapid phase out of coal and support affected workers and communities To make the transition There was also an NDC support program by the UN DP Germany, Spain and the EU which totaled 42 million Euros to assist our countries deliver on their pledges under the Paris Agreement It was also an NDC partnership regional hub to be set up in the Pacific It will provide expertise for developing regional solutions to mitigate Global warming and enhance the efforts of the Pacific Islands to adapt to climate change and the IEA the International energy agencies also announced 30 million Euro clean energy transition program to support countries around the world At the high level presidency event on insurance and resilience a goal a global partnership was forged and Was known as the Fiji clearing house for risk transfer This clearing house has the potential to provide millions of climate vulnerable people all over the world With access to affordable insurance against climate-related loss and damage such as display displacement Cop 23 aimed to further strengthen the UNF triple C Warsaw mechanism on loss and damage and One of the significant Outcomes to as far as Fiji is concerned was the launching of the ocean pathway partnership at COP 23 This is to us a major new initiative to strengthen the link between the climate change action and the health of the ocean To have this properly recognized both in the UN climate change process as well as in national climate action plans Cop 23 also adopted the first gender action plan and operationalize the local communities and indigenous peoples platform These initiatives are to ensure that those who are traditionally marginalized have a strong voice in climate change negotiations and victims of climate change are empowered to become agents of change under COP 23 they will be more funding for climate adaptations programs, but one area where the success of the COP 23 process was highlighted was in the area of Agriculture, we all know that small-scale farmers are amongst the most vulnerable to the impacts of Climate change so after six years of intense negotiation in agreement on agriculture was concluded at COP 23 and This joint work on agriculture will help developing our country's reduced greenhouse gas emissions from the Agricultural sector, which is the second biggest emitter after the energy sector This will also help promote the sector's resilience to the effects of climate change so overall COP 23 and And From our view has embraced the concept of a grand coalition for greater ambition In born the support for climate action from countries regions cities civil society the private sector and ordinary men and women was Clearly on display in the organized high-level events on health policy coherence human rights and climate change Insurance and resilience and the 2050 pathway platform which all aims to deliver in the coming years Concrete results all these events I might add were well attended and resulted in real energy around the issues of climate policy in The context of national policy formulation within society. I will stop here in the interest of time and will elaborate Further during the Q&A Thank you So that was a lot that was coming out and I think that we will all need to really Look at a lot of these agreements and and stages in much more depth so that we can Understand all of the different places at which we all can play a role And so we are now going to hear from Anton Huffnagle Who is the first secretary for climate environmental and urban affairs with the embassy of Germany? And it has been a pleasure to work with Anton since he came to the embassy He is responsible for quite a diverse portfolio Including climate environment and urban development But because this is also because it's also been the year of Germany holding the G20 presidency And also with COP 23 being in bond Anton's focus has necessarily really been on international climate policy He previously worked for Germany's federal ministry for the environment nature conservation building a nuclear safety In bond and he also had worked in London for JP Morgan And it's been wonderful working with Anton in his capacity at the embassy welcome Thank you Carol. Thank you your excellency for the great introduction. We had a Short conversation before before the talk today and you said you were only going to talk about How the COP affected Fiji? I think you've pretty much covered the entire COP and a lot of the a lot of the achievements there So i'm going to see what what I really will talk about now But I think I have prepared a presentation Apologize for the the date down there. That's actually the last time I presented here with the ESI And then that kind of didn't catch my attention The COP 23 in bond Further faster together. That's actually the the official title of the the closing statement that was agreed on by the now 197 parties To the united nations framework convention But also to the Paris agreement. So actually in bond or in the in the weeks leading up to bond we saw And the two remaining parties that had yet abstained from the the Paris climate convention The government of nicaragua and the government of syria joined the paris agreement as well thereby Giving the paris agreement the universal support Of course, there's been conversations in in this country, but the united states will Eventually leave the agreement or or not But as it stands, we we do have 197 signatories to the agreement So every single party to the framework convention from 1992 has now decided to to join the paris agreement as well So why did we have COP 23 in bond? It was a I think a first that the nation that was officially hosting The COP and was president to the COP fiji Decided to cooperate with another government in this case germany to host the COP on the Rhine and not on On one of the islands in fiji and I think it was mostly for logistical reasons We had 22 000 participants at COP 23 Would have been very hard for for fiji to to deal with those numbers And also we wanted to To have as little impact on the environment as possible So we were able to stage a COP that was that was completely carbon-free emissions neutral And that was easier to do in bond than than perhaps in fiji But the the great thing about about this COP was that it was the first COP that was that was hosted by a small island developing state small island nation And a nation that's at the forefront of climate change a nation that has made significant pledges through its nationally determined contribution And was now for the first time able to To lead the negotiations and did a great job at that So we offered to assist And the location in bond was not coincidental It's it's the headquarters of the united nations framework convention secretariat that have been hosted in bond For close to two decades now it has really Kind of shown the development of bond from a a cold war capital For four decades from 1949 to 1990 That has now been turned into A significant united nations headquarters And also the united nations capital of sustainability There's about 19 u.n organizations now based in bond many of them using Previous government locations previous ministerial buildings And are all focusing on sustainability and the kind of questions that we as a world need to come together to solve climate Change of course being Being the keen challenge among them Why is why is germany So involved and Why have we been so So vocal about climate change Germany represents about 2.16 percent of global emissions If we decarbonize entirely, which is what we have pledged to do by 2050 the effect on the climate will be relatively insignificant Fiji Represents 0.04 percent of global emissions Even if we as we did partnered The effect wouldn't be Necessary to achieve a two degree goal three degree goal possibly even a four degree goal So germany has found very early that cooperation is essential We have been a party of the Kyoto agreement We have now in in in bond announced that The signing of the the successor to the Kyoto agreement the doha amendment to the Kyoto agreement And of course we've been involved in negotiations leading to the paris agreement have now hosted this cop Um That the conference in in cop was one of the the so-called interim conferences So there's a a much larger conference every three years The last happened in paris in in 2015 Where all nations and this is the first Not just the developed nations not just the industrialized nations, but the developing nations as well have Committed together to the two degree goal So There's a lot of talking about deals that are better or worse The the major the major achievement of the paris agreement was to get everyone on the table And have everyone commit equally to this to this goal And as I said right now we have 197 parties to the paris agreement What happened in in in paris was of course this milestone of the paris agreement um What sometimes happens in international negotiations is that a milestone really then needs to be implemented Um, and we need to decide on how exactly we're going to implement this and this is what has happened in In marrakesh and in marocco last year What is happening what has happened in in bond this year? And what is going to happen in in in katowice and poland next year at cop 24? When we will finalize our rulebook for the implementation of the paris agreement basically Coming up with a coherent common framework for how do we Communicate our contributions to the protection of the climate How do we assist developing nations in in making their contributions? And how do we how do we be as transparent as possible about what we've actually achieved? So the paris agreement can really come together In in bond for the very first time And I think the the ambassador has already alluded to this We had two zones at the conference. So we had the bulla zone Which is fiji for for welcome and we had the bond zone the bulla zone was Was the one that was kind of the traditional cop It was where a national Negotiation teams would come together and for those two weeks Try to find as much agreement as possible to prepare the The finalization of the rulebook in in in katowice the next year And I think we've we've made significant progress again under the Under the the fijian presidency and their and their talent for for bringing as many of us Together as possible And we've now come up with a kind of collection of texts That will then be The basis for the the rulebook So really what has happened in bond was that every country Brought to the table It's it's drafts for the rulebook We we looked at those some of those were were accepted for a kind of preliminary text collection Some of those were merged some of those eventually were dropped from the table But we now have a collection of texts that will form the basis for the the next negotiations Which will continue in in 2018 at preliminary conference and then hopefully be finalized in in katowice And of course something that already that also has happened In in bond is that we don't just look at the post 2020 phase because the paris agreement really relates to climate action after 2020 originally it was envisaged that The paris agreement potentially only come into force in in 2020 Of course action here in the united states one of the first large nations to To ratify the paris agreement and then the european union and so many other nations fiji again among them have led to a much Faster coming into force of the paris agreement but most of the Most of the most of the convention really applies to post 2020 and the rulebook that we're defining now Will refer to what will be done after 2020 now, of course a lot of nations are pushing us to Commit to actions before 2020 This has happened through the Kyoto agreement It's it's happening through the the doha amendment to the Kyoto agreement which will last until 2020 kind of building that bridge to paris But many nations including again the small line of developing states have said really we need to peak emissions before 2020 And we need transparency and we need commitment by industrialized nations And we need the funding so we can make our first steps And this has led to the what was called the facilitated dialogue before Where we kind of prepare In a in a pre 2020 fashion our commitments and is now called the the telenoa dialogue And I think the ambassador has made clear what that means any the Global community has accepted that the telenoa dialogue will now launch or was launched at the COP and will officially begin Early next year So what are we really talking about and we're talking about climate change in the international context? It's really three pillars It's the mitigation So the the reduction of emissions that we need in order to achieve the two degree goal or potentially The the 1.5 degree goal It's the adaptation Where countries adapt to that climate change what will be Will be happening even under those scenarios And then finally its support where we help countries of lesser financial means In their in their efforts to either mitigate or adapt to climate change What happened in in bond was again that we we decided on the We prepared the Negotiations for the rulebook and they're supposed to be finalized by by 2018 next year And we looked at what can we do before 2020 and those were very hard negotiations Because a lot of countries are arguing well really the Paris agreement that we've signed up to only relates to after 2020 so why should we already Contributing to to these things right now, but we have found agreement on A stock taking effort that will take place in 2018 and 2019 which relates to the mitigation aspect so how How much have we contributed so far to the mitigation of climate change on a on a national basis And how much is still needed and for the goals to be achieved and we have agreed on Preliminary assessments of of climate finance contributions. So in In Paris or even shortly before that the industrialized world agreed to Contribute a hundred billion dollars per year After 2020 To adaptation and mitigation efforts by the developing world There has now been Some some anxiety around that goal especially with Signals coming coming from washington That potentially climate climate finance would no longer be priority of this government And countries are Especially the developing world is is asking us where where is the hundred billion coming from now? And we have reacted and we have we have agreed to To assess the contributions in 2018 and again in 2020 In order to to produce trust in the developing world that they will then also go ahead with their with their with their contributions and their Raising of ambition for mitigation and adaptation going forward And again the the new element in in in bond was the aptly called bond zone Uh, where for the first time the civil society kind of had its had its own place Uh, of course negotiators would would come there and meet with the civil society and you know, there'd be uh side events on a massive scale But it was the first time that this non-state element really had its own its own space in the In the un f triple c context And I think it worked great. I mean we have two representatives of the non-state element sitting here on the table with us today Um, so that shows that um, how just how important that is especially here in the united states Um, we had the the ndc partnership hosting a number of events in the in the climate action zone in the bond zone The ngc partnership is a partnership of Develop nations developing nations and a few ngos that was formed Uh, was formed in marakash last year. So it was really celebrating its its first anniversary in in bond And that is is is partnering develop nations and developing nations in order to Come together on on, uh, how do I how do I formulate my ndcs? Given given national conditions, and then how do I implement them? And this is really supporting nations in in raising ambitions through their ndcs And then the implementation of ndcs which which are the cornerstones of the paris agreement again the national determined contributions Are a piece that is is really outside of the paris agreement. So we we don't have we don't have uh, they're not part of the treaty Um, which also means that they can be changed by nations Um as they feel appropriate Of course, there's been a lot of conversation on the the us ndc um And how how that potentially Can be changed But it's it's important to know that accession to the paris agreement Does not Does not set in stone the ndc and was really meant to be that way from the beginning because we want to ratchet up ambition over time So ndcs are for a five-year period and then after that during those five years. We see where can we increase ambition now? What is really what has really been important in in bond again was the non-state contributions um, I think one thing that that Kind of struck everybody um, was the the tremendous the tremendous Delegation from sub-national non-state actress coming from the united states. We had four u.s. Governors on the ground um, we had um Teams from from other states. We had a number of mayors coming to bond. We had a a large u.s. Business community representation um, and what's been universal to that delegation is that they pledged continued support to the paris agreement um, a lot of these governors organized through the u.s. Climate Alliance have pledged again that They will use the the the current united states ndc, which is to lower emissions by By 26 to 28 percent by 2025 as their guideline going forward, which is really showing to us that um, even if there's concern on the federal level Even if there's criticism on the federal level Um, a large part of the economy um, that is then responsible for emissions even here in the u.s Has accepted the irreversibility of the paris agreement And and what really hasn't happened in in in bond? Was a renegotiation of the paris agreement that's been demanded by some um And the further faster together kind of kind of um supports that notion that the paris agreement is here to stay in its current form um, and then we just need to make sure that it's Um, that it's an an agreement that's well coming to to more actors So it's well coming to the sub-national community. It's well coming to to indigenous communities And I think we've done that with a a new forum that was also supported by fiji Um is is well coming to the business community and so on. Um, we've seen that at the the conference in paris Last week that was especially focusing on climate finance and what the business community can do um So that is a an encouraging sign that came from the cop. What was germany doing at the cop 23? We were In the middle of coalition negotiations in berlin so was it was Somewhat bad timing. We were hosting the largest international conference in the history of germany 22 000 participants in bond in the old capital in the new capital Um, the parties were just then trying to Negotiate the the rules for new government Finally that that attempt was unsuccessful a new attempt is beginning right now after the elections But we were present in in bond. Actually, this is our our president Mr. Steinmeier Making making the opening speech there just as has proved that German politicians did travel the chancellor was Was there and made the made the national speech for germany And and we've made a a number of contributions related to the mitigation but also to the the financing aspect Of course our our mitigation framework has been Has been set by by almost Eight years now These are goals that were defined in in 2010 As the four goals of the energy transition and these are kind of the the near-term goals so we Set that on a national level. We will have 40 to 45 renewables by 2025 lower emissions by 40 percent Have an energy efficiency target, which will decrease energy consumption by by 2020 So those are our national or domestic energy transition efforts In the in the longer term by 2050 the climate action plan unveiled in in mara cash last year Is then setting a longer term target for 2050, which is to effectively decarbonize our economy And that long-term framework, I think Or we think is important to to create certainty for investors to effectively go into these markets um Our contributions to climate finance again, uh, we we support the 100 billion Pledge by by 2020 Have again reiterated this pledge in in 15 16 and now in 17 and have Um, I think this is germany's kind of federal government climate finance business climate finance and um Finance coming from financial sector is again independent But these are the numbers for the last 10 years 16 17 aren't yet on here. I think it shows a Um, a very clear trajectory to where we want to be In 2015 the chancellor has announced that we want to again double our climate aid by 2020 So we will eventually Be contributing just on the federal level about four billion euros per year to international climate finance Only in bond We have made additional commitments to the adaptation fund and to the least developed countries fund Of 50 million each and we have pledged 110 million euros for something called the insa resilience global partnership This is a scheme that will Support insurances climate insurances, especially for small-life developing states. Um, it's it's been It's been created In in 2016 at marrakesh. That's when we announced it the first payouts actually came after the hurricanes in the caribbeans this year So there's been some there's been some bilateral support To to these countries to these small island states and the caribbeans affected by the the hurricane season of 2017 but there's also a Kind of long-term solution, which is this insa resilience framework and the first payouts Have come out have come out this year so that it's working and we're creating trust in that community Is all of this in our national interest We believe yes, absolutely. So Germany is a a manufacturing economy. It's a knowledge economy. So if we're able to Bring forward the the energy transition in other countries And we're able to help other countries with our technology with our kind of integrate energy solutions Um, it doesn't just make sense from political point of view. It makes sense from economic point of view And I think the um the speakers after we will Will reflect on that as well um, the other point that's um, that's really been At the top of everybody's mind in in europe at least this is a climate security nexus So how does climate risk turn into turn into security risk? and we believe that a A national security strategy that does not take climate risk into account is is not complete And we've had a number of side events in in bond where we've alluded to to our work One of those is a integrated security analysis for the the chat Uh, the chat lake in africa Where you have a a region that is under a tremendous threat from from climate change is also Facing risks of political and economic stability And we are um now developing a framework of how do we Analyze these risks and how how do we cope these risks and an integrated development approach? And that is what I would like to close my presentation with thank you Thank you very much anton and as Anton referred in his remarks that half of our panel is also Representing this sub national um a group that Was part of cop 23 and was a very significant factor in terms of the number of people the range of interests And commitment and excitement that was all part of these negotiations And we will first hear from sam ricketts who is the director of federal and interstate affairs in governor j ensley's washington dc office sam leads that work and Sam had previously Worked for then congressman j ensley and in the course of that he had He was the executive director Of the us house sustainable energy and environment coalition Which was a caucus that had been formed by congressman ensley And and also congressman steve israel at that point And the whole idea behind that was to really promote clean energy and climate action With the within the within the house And in his role as in terms of leading governor ensley's washington office He is the governor's chief liaison with the federal government With congress and also with the national and western governor's association And helps on all manner of federal policies that affect washington state Because governor ensley was one of the four governors In bond he uh, we thought that it was very important to have sam here to talk about the whole role of governors of Of the leadership coming out of states and local governments With regard to climate and of course governor ensley has been leading efforts both within washington state and also in certainly within the north pacific northwest and in Relations with also various canadian provinces as well as There are regional efforts underway to really look at how to best address climate and greenhouse emissions sam Great. Thank you carol. Thank you esi for another great briefing. Thank you all for being here And thank you to my to my fellow panelists especially to To the ambassador and to anton and for your work and for your country's leadership In hosting the cop and hosting the governor and governors This year and your ongoing work and again, thanks everyone for for being here to talk about this important subject Again, my name is sam rickets. I handle federal interstate affairs for washington state governor insley The we like to consider ourselves as the greenest and one of the best countries and other states in the country Right off the bat just starting. This is the headline of the statement that the governor insley and our state issued Along with actually other governors In the lead up to the bond Climate conference in the lead up to cop 23 and you see here It says us governors had to germany to reassure global to reassure global leaders of american leadership on climate change I think generally you'd expect A different entity to be showing up on behalf of the united states to assure global leaders of american leadership on climate Change was clearly given the direction that the united states government has chosen to go in vis a vis the paris agreement and international climate collaboration We felt there was a particularly important for american governors to be president in bond this year to talk with global leaders About how the united states is continuing to move forward on climate on climate action Um just by way of background washington state located in the in the upper northwest of the country We've got our own unique challenges that we're facing right now today in climate change governor insley understands This is a a moral imperative to act upon climate change that it's that it's uh an issue That's not often the future that is in fact having damaging effects on our state and on the global community as we speak Just in washington, we've experienced uh two of the worst wildfire seasons in our nation in our state's history Just in the last four years ocean certification increasingly on our on our coastal communities along with with um Sea level rise and storm surge have been impacting coastal communities water resources are already being strained in parts of the state Where we're actually other parts of the state are growing wetter And we're seeing more mudslides and storm surge more and more flooding all as a result of what climate projections have been have projected which is these things are are Are now and are going to be increasing as a result of climate change So in response governor insley has has pursued an aggressive agenda within washington state for reducing greenhouse gas emissions And and building a clean energy economy for the 21st century Now specifically the governor has pursued policies in partnership with the legislature and through executive order He's implemented a clean air rule to cap and reduce carbon emissions from the largest sources across the economy in the state We're phasing out the use of coal power both by closing our our final coal plant within the state by 2025 And also reducing and phasing out the use of imported coal power and electricity in our electricity systems He's worked in the legislature to create a clean energy fund that is investing in in breakthrough technologies both in their development and in their deployment Like like battery storage used with renewables to clean up the grid and the electricity sector We're one of the leading states when it comes to penetration of electric vehicles in the personal vehicle fleet And there's ongoing conversations between the governor and the state legislature about the future of carbon pricing and possibly joining other Some of our fellow states in in putting a price on and thereby reducing carbon pollution But it wasn't so this is all the backdrop that that governor inslee used to take to bond to argue for the need for continued climate action and and demonstrate particularly that washington state as well as Along with other states is continuing to take action to reduce carbon pollution Um, obviously this in contrast with some of the remarks and certainly the policy agenda set here in washington dc by the federal government But it but inslee was not alone Uh for governors the largest delegation of united states governors to attend a cop were in bond uh november this year Uh for governors attended governor inslee his counterparts governors jerry brown and cape brown from california and oregon and governor terry mccullough From virginia. Um, there have been governors attending cops in the past Governor inslee was pleased enough to be in paris in 2015 when the historic paris agreement was signed He's attended past agreement past cops as well He was in coban agon for instance in 2009 as a congressman A representing you know as part of the congressional delegation that attended that but this was this was crucial This was a year that governors felt it was going to be important to be there as i said to speak with the global community about American leadership continuing even here in 2017 in reducing carbon pollution and working with the global community to address this moral and global imperative Particularly each of these governors is a member of the united states climate alliance The u.s. Climate alliance was founded in literally the days after President trump announced the united states intention to withdraw from the paris climate agreement Uh, it has grown to 15 members It was uh was led by as co-chair and co-founded by governor inslee and governor quomo from new york and governor jerry brown from california It has grown to 15 members 14 states and one territory port urico Um by partisan coalition both democratic and republican governors who are committed to Reducing the carbon pollution working together to advance and continue American leadership on climate change each of the four governors that attended the cop as a member of the u.s Climate alliance and i'll talk a little bit more about the climate alliance activities in the cop But in addition i should mention there were six other governors who were represented by senior advisors or by Their agency officials over in germany Also speaking about their states action in 2017 and and and going forward This was obviously all part of the broader community of subnational actors and non-governmental actors who Who went to bond from the united states to say we are still in we are still committed to the paris climate agreements Business council for sustainable energy obviously had a presence the business community large from the united states As you've seen a strong outpouring of support for continuing carbon reductions and continuing to build clean energy and And a cleaner more sustainable future for our country There were universities there are ngo's there were cities of course present as well The you may have heard of the we are still in coalition as well as america's pledged launched by jerry brown and Mayor former mayor bloomberg all this strong outpouring of support from civil society and subnational governments In the in the wake of president trump's announcement about pulling out of the paris agreement All demonstrating that the united states is still committed even if our federal government Perhaps is taking a time out from being committed to climate action um the alliance principles that each of these states have declared themselves behind our States are are are right now confronting and leading on climate change states are continuing to lead for about 20 years States have been the foremost actors in the united states one could argue as i would in in reducing carbon pollution and building out clean energy And this predates the obon administration even this states back to at least the beginning of this century Um state level of climate action is benefiting our economies and strengthening our communities that again is an action is something The states that are part of the united states climate alliance have actually seen as they've taken steps to reduce their carbon and build clean energy They've seen their economies grow faster than the rest of the us at large Washington state actually has the fastest growing economy in the country We led the nation and gdp growth last year We we believe that is tied and intricately tied to the fact that we believe in innovation We believe in the forward-looking economy in washington state States are showing the final bullet the principles behind the climate alliance is that states are showing the nation and the world that An ambitious climate action is achievable and indeed this relates to what california is doing This relates to what the northeast states the northeastern states are doing with reggie States are acting right now. It is benefiting our economies. It is benefiting our states We feel it is a imperative both for our states to reduce carbon pollution and protect against these worst climate impacts For our economies to lead the the world in these 21st century technologies and for the global community and the climate impacts that we must avoid Lest you think uh 15 states big whoop We've what about the other 35? Let me um make sure to share with you that the united states climate alliance represents 36 percent of us population Climate alliance states represent seven trillion dollars in us gdp about 40 percent of overall gdp in united states Climate alliance members are also home to 1.3 million clean energy jobs Again, this relates to the fact that climate alliance states have been focusing on building these parts of these economies I mentioned the things we're doing in washington state that has led to us being one of the top 10 states in wind energy We are home to some innovative solar manufacturers We are home to a burgeoning battery technology sector based in part by the investments the market certainties the attraction That we want to bring to those those industries that we feel are going to lead the global The global race for clean energy technologies addition The the united states climate alliance the the members who have committed themselves the governors who have signed up and said I want to be part of this forward thinking alliance Uh to commit themselves really it is important to realize it really have three things three and a half That their states will meet or exceed the targets of the united of the of the paris climate agreements The united states as we mentioned has said it has set for itself its n dc A target of 26 to 28 percent reduction emissions reductions by using 2005 levels by 2025 These states each commit that they're going to do their part and in meeting or exceeding that target for their own state These states importantly cannot cannot We don't believe these states can can subsume and can take the entirety of the us and dc on themselves There's too much carbon emissions from too many other parts of the country But these states are committed to working together to take to meet or exceed their parts of it and to work in together to go further faster Furthermore, these states are committed to meeting or exceeding their targets is set by the clean power plan That that the epa was previously implementing Um And furthermore the other two elements that are crucially we feel these states are committed to demonstrating their leadership and their action To the domestic political community The right the united states needs to know that states are continuing to lead and importantly the global community needs to know That states are continuing to work on carbon reductions and clean energy And then finally and this is probably most exciting is that these states are committed to working together to go further faster We're we're actively working we've set up working groups We're exploring policy and and in partnerships in financing deployment of clean energy in tracking emissions data Which as you know is an enormous policy undertaking of its own in working together on natural and working lands and their relation to climate solutions We think that by by collaborating across state lines We'll be even we'll be able to go even further even faster in reducing carbon pollution and fighting for a clean energy future um I mentioned the the u.s. Climate Alliance and it's some of some of the other stats and that of course brings us all To bond and the presence the united states climate alliance governors had governor insley and three of his colleagues had in in bond Some of the announcements that that we thought were crucial we felt were crucial and wanted to bring to the international community Um, I guess a few things the goal of governors being there as I stated was to assure the global community that America is not out of the climate game so to speak that we have states and strong actors within the united states And states arguably are among the strongest in the energy sector. We have Pretty broad jurisdiction over our energy systems over our transportation system states Arguably can be one of the most effective movers of climate policy in the country and indeed we've seen that over the last 20 years Importantly the states who are there governor insley and his colleagues were separate and apart from the formal united states delegation Obviously the state department was present the united states is still a member of the unf triple c It is still a member of the paris climate agreement. It can't formally remove itself until 2020 So there was a delegation from the united states there and they speak for the country and its federal government But as I stated it's our governor sultry was vitally important to be there Along with the other elements of civil society from the united states and obviously along with the global community To demonstrate continued partnership and action On climate on climate change Governors involved them were involved in multilateral discussions with with other nation's leaders were involved in bilateral discussions aimed at furthering partnerships With other specific nations and subnational actors around the country Now some of the announcements that the governors Brought forward and in bond and even previous I've got up here on the slide for you the one on the in the upper left hand corner As a report that was issued by the climate alliance In partnership with the rhodium group actually back in september in new york city as part of the un climate week And that is a report says alliance states taking the lead that demonstrated that alliance states with their actions to date are on track Our 15 states and territories are on track to uh to meter exceed our paris goals by 2025 As we as we stand right now the our states have taken aggressive enough action We were on track to meet those targets We're obviously seeking to go even further even faster In addition the picture that in the in the middle of the center there You've got governor insolene governor brown along with the environmental ministers from mexico and canada The climate alliance together with mexico and canada issued a north american climate leadership statement And it have initiated what's going to be called the north american climate leadership dialogue Again, this is normally a role That's that the state department and the united states government would take on but canada and mexico recognized the power that These states working together will have and we are now going to be working together to set up a dialogue Where we can collaborate as states with our with our neighbors to the north and south on a north american climate leadership dialogue And that's going to continue up to and including and beyond of the the large scale climate summit that our friends in california are planning to host in september 2018 As well up there you see we um the the bottom headline United States climate alliance partners with resources for the future in the climate lab on working on social cost of carbon That is obviously something the trump administration has decided That they do not want to use and they and they indeed want to undermine our states recognize that it's vitally important to track The cost that carbon pollution is going to have on society And we're working to continue that data and that important work that those those groups have been have been involved in As well, um not just related to the climate alliance, but from the other governors that were there Governor rinsley and the washington state as a member of the international alliance to combat ocean acidification A problem faced by our our nations in pacific island nations and indeed coastal communities across the world um The international alliance to combat ocean acidification announced new members and new commitments from world leaders to take action To protect oceans from the impacts of climate change that group now is comprised of 55 members both Nations like like france states like washington cities ngo's tribes from from around the world um As you may have also seen in the news governors insley and k brown from a picture you see there happened to crash the The the party that was thrown by some elements of the trump administration Which wanted to show up and and talk about a pro fossil fuel agenda those governors decided that they they'd Hop on over to that event and talk about what their states are doing and what What the u.s. Climate alliance and similar states are doing and moving forward in the clean energy future Versus that that type of agenda and then lastly you also see the logo of the pacific coast collaborative Which is um a partnership that we've got going on the west coast Washington, orgin california and also british columbia that's been around since 2008 With that particular focus on working together as a region to reduce carbon pollution build clean energy Examine things like ocean acidification and otherwise work on a more sustainable Prosperous and secure clean energy future So those are some of the elements that our governors brought to to bond and some of the exciting things that we saw come out of it We felt and I think the global community I think my colleagues would would reiterate it as well that it was important for the governors to be there I think they felt that being there helped to encourage the international community that despite Some of the announcements from the united states federal government. The united states is not out of the ball game that there is hope for When there's continued action in the united states To address climate change and in partnership that there are still a broad swath of society here We would argue majority of american society wants to continue as a part of the paris climate agreement We believe our states believe governor inslee believes that american leadership is going to be crucial if we're going to address this challenge successfully and effectively And so that he's continuing his state and we're continuing this partnership of states on that trajectory We think the states have Have had and can have a crucial role to play in this important challenge. So thank you all for being here again Business has been a very very important voice in all of these negotiations for years and years and obviously It takes many many players to be able to kind of deliver the goods Nobody can do this by themselves in terms of thinking about the the scale of the problem that our global community is dealing with and We all need to find ways in which which all of these different sectors can be working and problem solving together and The business council for sustainable energy has been participating in all of these negotiations has been an active presence for years and years and I am so pleased that lisa Jacobson who is the president of the business council for sustainable energy is with us today I've worked closely with lisa and the business council for years and they have been providing such important leadership in this whole community and Have been actively bringing people to together both internationally as well as Through the business council's work and lead lisa's leadership in terms of working with federal policymakers also people in policy positions at the state and local level So lisa, thank you so much Thank you very much carol and good afternoon everybody and I also would like to Extend a very appreciative. Thank you and acknowledgement To the ambassador your government was an excellent host as well as to Anton on behalf of your government the government of germany was a good supportive partner And as you alluded to in some of your comments was innovator in terms of making this particular kind of kind of conference welcoming Not only to the national government negotiators, but also to the subnational communities like the private sector So the business council for sustainable energy I'm proud to serve as its president Has been a part of the framework convention on climate change process since the very early years It was formed as an organization in 1992 And some of you may recall that was the year when the first Global earth summit occurred it was in Rio de Janeiro and it was really the birthplace Of the paris agreement and all the agreements that have preceded it That was when the framework convention on climate change Was brought to light it is also a Time when we were working on the montreal protocol and it was also That treaty was brought out of that process And then there was two other global treaties one on to certification and one on biodiversity that came out of that global summit So it was really a transformative moment in time And in addition to having these new Global agreements on the major environmental issues facing the world It also was really also a birthplace of bringing subnational actors together and under many un treaties But I don't think any of them do it as well as the framework convention on climate change. There are constituency groups There's nine under the framework convention on climate change And the business community has been a part of it since Those treaties were founded so Having a legacy like that To allow the business community to play a constructive role to share its views And also work with governments Collaboratively to solve problems and to identify the policies that will lead to the results that these treaties seek to accomplish is just fundamental and COP 23 really I think was a breakthrough moment for that and yes There's a lot of discussion about the u.s federal government's positions But I believe anton mentioned it I mean, this is something that had started at least a decade in a new way. There was a new conversation In the lead up to paris, which was if we are successful in having very strong ambitious Scientifically based climate targets globally. We cannot do it as national governments We really need the implementers to be as close to the table as possible To work with us to make sure that we can meter exceed those targets And the business community is one of the pillars of implementation And also the finance that is needed to Make it cost effective to reduce emissions on the scale that's being contemplated So I saw at cop 23 kind of a new moment in terms of how the business community can engage And yes part of it was to just as the governors were there and other policy makers and other stakeholders were there from the Us and north america to say we're still committed It was also a time to continue to share Expertise and to help that particular conference be successful The business council for sustainable energy is just one of a number of business groups that have been very active in this process Um, oh, it's it's going to be a little bit of a slideshow for you. Let me let the slideshow go and then I'll Stop these are some of the images of some of the business community representatives at cop 23 And you'll also see kind of a White igloo looking type structure and that was the climate action pavilion, which has never been done before on the scale As it was at cop 23. I mean it was probably the equivalent of six rooms of this size large conference space for You know big forums then it had some smaller Conference space and then a big kind of atrium in the middle where everyone could gather And this is you know, what it looked like in the larger space during one of the The signature events that were that were going on. Let me see if I can stop Okay, um, also there was a sacred canoe image in the beginning. I just want to call that out that was a a feature In the bond zone, which is where civil society was you could walk by it every day and it just I mean for me I mean, obviously it has a lot of significance for the culture And the leadership of the government of fiji But for me it always said we're all in the same boat We all have to work together business community governments other stakeholders to get the the very ambitious job ahead of us done So, um, again, I want to thank Your government for its excellent excellent hospitality and infusing that cooperative and you know, good feeling that that we all had So it really Was accomplished so well done Um So just to share a few thoughts, um On the business community. I mean, obviously the business community is very diverse. I mean we represent in our own industries Largely energy and transportation sector interests. Some of them are regulated under policies that Would fall under the paris agreement national commitment. So maybe it's uh Power generation reducing emissions at power plants or maybe it's in the automotive industries reducing emissions from Those fleets it could be in buildings. It could also be in industrial processes So we have members that are both impacted by policy But also offer solutions to those policies in the marketplace kind of similar to what sam was discussing when he was talking about the Economic growth of climate solutions technologies in the state of washington and that state of washington is a leader But it's not alone So in the areas of energy efficiency in the areas of renewable energy in the areas of clean generation like natural gas Or in the transportation sectors or storage. That's the the set of constituencies that the council represents But when it comes to a forum like cop 23, we aren't the only industries there. Um, there were some very big name companies from microsoft to Mars candy that makes m&m's. I mean i mean down the line There were many different companies that you would recognize the name of that were there to talk about why they care about A sustainability and climate change mitigation and resiliency and adapt an adaptation for their own business interests as well as for Their customers. Um, but they also see themselves as serving a larger marketplace and they're doing it for sustainability But primarily it's for the economic gains that they get and the enhancements to their own businesses And for me that was the the clearest message that came across that Many of the companies that were there You know didn't really speak to the environmental side of the equation They really spoke to the job creation and the economic benefits to their companies and then to their customers So that's that's a bit of a sea change too in the way companies are thinking about climate change and sustainability And it's not just on the margins. This is a mainstream set of views in the business community So one other Aspect that was mentioned is an initiative called we are still in which is focused on the paris agreement And i don't know how laura how many companies a thousand companies now I mean 800 900 companies have signed on to this pledge, which is very simple. It just says we are committed to supporting the The principles and the objectives of the paris agreement and they mostly are us and north american companies that have participated But that type of initiative. Yes, it was born out of the the trump administration's Statements on the paris agreement, but it would have happened anyway in a different shape or form and it was needed anyway So I think that's really important for those of you that are Here who at some point, you know, obviously the senate has a role in terms of ratifying international treaties Think about that aspect of it, you know, there's a lot of discussion of the near term politics But this is a long-term issue. It's being discussed been discussed over decades And just as our own emissions, you know at the end of last year, we're a 25 year low We're doing this Without imposing costs on consumers and businesses that are significant when you look at the way our energy productivity Trends have been we are decoupling growth in our economy from energy use and emissions So we are making significant progress and this is all based on sound economics So just as the markets are shifting really the policy landscape is shifting and With or without federal policies The state and local level is going to be in the driver's seat and always needed to be and so the business community Is working hand in hand to tell that aspect of the story and also to be there to help guide To make sure that any new policies, you know Don't derail the progress the markets are making and that they enable more rapid and cost effective emissions reductions and preparedness and resiliency planning when it comes to climate change I want to have time for questions and I think I probably will just make one last set of comments and close it there First is to acknowledge Laura Tierney who's our head of international programs and has really been leading our business delegations to the climate change negotiations for Eight plus years She would be here we'll be here to answer some questions in the discussion portion But I also wanted to share a paper that the council released called powering ambition and our whole message there was look we If we especially when we look at the cost reductions, we can do so much more than even just a few short years ago to reduce emissions Get a bigger impact for every dollar spent Because the costs have been coming down for so many solutions technologies There are new business models and deployment and scale has You know changed the marketplace. So a lot of our focus was to tell that economic story But we also did care very specifically about different aspects of the negotiations themselves You know making sure that we continue to have a transparent and accountable Paris agreement rule book And that process has been started and we felt good that it was keeping to We're all in this together on a shared common goal mentality as opposed to having you know Different countries with different requirements and different understandings of what the challenge is the paris agreement really was A landmark agreement and that it brought everybody together under a common agenda and common set of ambitions And it also retained, you know the opportunity for some Subnational governments to be involved and then looking ahead We're going to be involved in the Tana Loa dialogue. We're going to provide our input Um, and that also is a very new and an innovative Type of initiative at a really critical time. So I commend again your government for Bringing that to that this forum and we want to take up the opportunity To share our views through that process But there's there's a lot many more issues that we do care about in the climate change negotiations themselves And you can read more about it on this paper, which is on our website www.bcse.org And happy to participate in the conversation for a few minutes and then laura will take over for me So thank you very much carol appreciate your leadership at EES I Okay, we have a few minutes for questions or comments Uh, so does anyone have a question that they would like to ask our wonderful panel? Jared First of all, thank you for an excellent presentation Thank you. My name is Jared Blum. I happen to be chair of EES I so I'm thrilled about putting this on I'm putting this on together with the four of you Mr. Ambassador For many of us here in the united states the issue of climate has become very partisan and very Un we have an inability to to realize its consequences even though we've had The kind of disastrous weather events could you articulate for us a little bit for and for people who are watching Online as well the kinds of things that fiji is engaged in to try and protect its people And indeed your island nations that are around you to the to the extent that this is a real and present danger for people Now we have to realize that could you articulate that a little for us? Thank you for the question Jared For fiji and the pacific island region the issue of adaptation is An ongoing and and a current challenge for us We have Relocated communities. We have identified about 30 Villages that needed to be relocated in the in the next year and these are communities that are coastal based and Like most island countries our our development Model has always been Coastal based our towns and cities our roads They've always been built along the the coast and For a country that depends A lot on tourism for example both of the Multi-billion dollar investment in tourism are coastal based and this is a huge challenge for for small island developing state like fiji on how do we respond to the Erosion of coastal areas the threat of tsunamis on on on the coast and To us it's been integrated into our development agenda and our development plans the need to Build resilience by moving People away from the coast. It's not an easy task You know like when you Try to convince Islanders to move away from the ocean It's like a new phenomena for them. So we need to work with communities to to do that With regards to our neighbors in the pacific islands Fiji takes its role as a regional hub very seriously. We are very mindful That our neighbors to the north of us Very prone to sea level rise Countries like Kiribati and Tuvalu a change in centimeters in sea level rise has huge impact on their On their livelihood. So fiji has has been Home to these communities For a number of years now there is Migration to to fiji They're building up the communities In fiji and also the fijian government has allocated land for both Tuvalu and Kiribati where It is starting off To address the issue of food security where they can come and plant their food or raise their food for For export back to their countries but eventually we We Accept that these lands that are being bought by Kiribati and the Tuvalu government will eventually serve as As settlements for their for their population And those are the the issues that we are addressing within our Country and within our region in terms of providing adaptation policies Thank you. We're having similar issues in alaska for removing villages as well Um, so we perhaps get some lessons from what you all are doing in fiji. Thank you Pastor mara, could you also speak to the food issue a little bit and And once again the reliance on the sea as I mentioned in my presentation that one of the The agenda that fiji took to cop 23 is to strengthen the linkage between Healthy ocean and climate change because for island countries our livelihood mainly from the the ocean and certainly it's now being A yearly occurrence during the summer that We've been in the pacific island countries that villages are waking up to Strong Decomposing smell coming from the ocean and these are Reef fishes that are just dying off because of the increase in ocean Temperature, it's no longer an isolated incident It's happening in fiji in kiri bass in Tuvalu and all throughout the the pacific island region and to us this goes to impact on the issue of Of food security Not only on the availability of Of food for coastal communities, but also as a source of protein. We are not big dairy eaters Or users we rely on the oceans from for those Protein so it has this multiple impact on on the health of Coastal communities and also on the security of the food that they rely Which is pretty profound in terms of thinking about how much of this is already Is already underway And of course sam mentioned that too in terms of what you were already seeing off the coast of of The pacific northwest off a lot of washington state Other questions Thank you Thank you so much. My name is Sergio Martinez and i'm a former intern in the energy climate change and extractive industries program at the interamerican dialogue And I have a question for mr. Anton. Hope not So my I I want to ask you two questions about the indices and the climate climate funding in regards to the indices I'm wondering if you how do you see that this monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to assess comparability about the The contribution that each country is seeking so far countries just have implemented or have passed on strategic plannings, but besides law regulations or policies what kind of protests Does the international community expect to see in that regard and in terms of climate finance How do you see innovative financial mechanisms? That increase private sector participation and non-state actors in terms of of Covering the 100 billion dollar gap. Thank you Thank you for the question on the the first piece The NDC is in the the transparency on Communicating NDCs, but then also on implementing NDCs is is really the core of the rulebook negotiations that is happening right now and we've We we have now NDCs have been submitted by by almost any every party to the the paris agreement And for now those those NDCs are very very different Some of those are are very very quantified as the the u.s. NDC Reduce emissions by 26 to 28 percent from 2005 to 2025 The european units NDC reduce emissions by by 2030 by 40 percent Those are those are very quantifiable But then of course we have NDCs Fiji's NDC 30 percent by 2030 Then of course we have NDCs that are Much less quantifiable And may not even relate to to mitigation but may relate to adaptation How do we quantify adaptation commitments? Is that is that merely in terms of finance or maybe is there another way? Potentially it's about creating food security for you know a certain part of your your population as the ambassador Just just mentioned So that's the discussion that's taking place right now, which will then inform how NDCs in 2020 because we're looking for The next commitment period will be the NDCs from 2025 to 2030 those will be formulated after 2020 How can these be formulated in a more coherent in a more comparable way? That's that's the discussions are taking place in the in the rulebook negotiations The transparency working group has been has been making progress and bond led by a Led by The chairs from China and the u.s two nations that have kind of started the whole transparency Conversation ahead of Paris and still continuing now So we're looking forward to To their contributions in in in katowice. There's reluctance by some countries to to to quantify But there's I think a larger and growing majority of countries that is looking for For for numbers in those NDCs So that's that is good. That's something we're looking forward to your your second question on It was on climate climate finance in terms of how do you see the private sector and non-state sector? Yeah, so there's There's the 100 billion goal and it's important to know that that's not just public finance, but it's public finance and publicly motivated private finance And we've seen that that second number grow tremendously The conference the one planet summit in in paris that President Macron, but also the secretary general of the united nations and the president of the world bank have invited The world community to was especially focused on how do we mobilize private finance the world bank at its its meetings this year Had how do we mobilize private finance for climate change as one of the main topics? and again that alludes to what What lisa was saying for the sustainable business council before it's it's not there's a sustainability case But for businesses the business case is so much more enticing because they're working for their shareholders Um, and we've seen that the the business case is becoming more and more clear And now it's how do we make that business case like the very last kind of step that we need to take As as governments, whether it's you know on the national level on the sub national level What's the final step we need to take to to make that business model as enticing as it needs to be For a lot of these business models. That's the case in in germany this year. We have the first offshore wind auction That went out for zero subsidies So that's very clearly An area where the the state can now step away from Let investors do their thing There's other areas Especially in developing countries Where because of credit risk for example countries, um, sorry businesses are more reluctant to to step forward So how can we as as governments? Facilitate and motivate that that that private investment is I think the the big question Going forward for next year Year after next and I think what's what's important is that we we analyze how we as governments are Are able to help but also how we as governance potentially are doing the opposite of helping The g20 has a has a conversation on fossil fuel subsidies Where we've seen that in in developed countries even There's huge amounts of public money going into fossil fuels The first step would be to look at those subsidies and you know reduce those subsidies to to zero As soon as possible and then potentially channel some of that money into the cleaner sources of of energy in line with the Paris agreement Anton I was just kind of mentioned that That with regard to statements by the g20 the g7 the g8 Over the past few years there have been a number of Of things or statements that have come forward saying we need to address the subsidy issue Do you think that this is finally going to happen now? In terms of the g20 sure So in terms of the g20, uh, we've we've made the decision in in elma doing the german g20 presidency That we would investigate fossil fuel subsidies in g20 countries in a peer review process um The united states and china were the first countries to engage them to engage on that on that peer review They have since published their results Germany and mexico are currently peer reviewing their subsidies. So we're we're now getting enough data and actual government Official data on these subsidies And I think once we have a number of these peer reviews ready There will be even more pressure From the from the ngo's from private sector to attack these these subsidies and quite frankly When we're looking at the 100 billion goal If we're able to divert some of those subsidies to The adaptation and mitigation funds that are needed by developing countries You know, we'd be doing them a huge favor So I think it's looking at these fossil fuel subsidies and and looking at especially Ending these subsidies and not creating new ones, right? There's a There's a discussion in this country on new effectively subsidies for coal fired power plants Really the the decisions of the g20 Not just the paris agreement, but any anyone who's interested in in mitigating carbon emissions and this is This goal of mitigating carbon emissions has found the universal support of all g20 countries at the summit and hamburg this year So really anyone who's interested in simply mitigating greenhouse gas emissions Should be Should be very much looking at At public subsidies as the kind of first and very obvious step to do so Any last question Okay, well, I wanted to just ask laura question quickly and in terms of In terms of your experience and coming out of bond What do you see as a sort of the the key Ask or message then coming from the business community your either your members or in terms of thinking about All of the folks that you were interacting with So where are what what what are the members of the business council looking for from this process? Going forward. Is that your question or action on climate change? Well, I think lisa well articulated that This is a long journey that we've been on for over two decades where business has been a part of this climate discussion And now that we have the universal agreement and the paris agreement the inclusion of all stakeholders including business The the site really turns to the implementation and I hate to use these terms that get thrown around very Um loosely, but what does implementation mean? It means, you know, the working with the state and local opportunities and the partners that Um, Washington state for example showcased here today Um, there is going to be on the political side There's going to be an event in san francisco hosted by governor brown in california in september That is going to try to galvanize what is happening By subnational actors Around the world and we want to be a part of that And and we look for continued, uh national leadership, uh to to get us through to the next To the next, um iteration not the iteration of the paris agreement But we have to get down to the business of implementing and reducing emissions and building more resilient communities. So, um I think there's been a lot of political attention and needed and and and it's much needed political attention But sometimes that can get that can complicate Um the taking of the action of the creating of the markets for these more Efficient technologies the cleaner sources of energy. So We're here and ready to partner with your bosses back in your home states And then also with the governments such as fiji germany and others in the united states government delegation as well So, thank you. Thanks and sam just quickly. I wanted to ask whether Whether you saw Whether you anticipate that there will be other governors That whether through nta or through the western governors association that will be Willing to step forward based upon what they are now seeing from all of your experience coming out of cop Uh, thank you carol. It's a good question. I absolutely. I think the the short answer is absolutely You're going to see more governors joined when we when we launched this again It was three governors insley and brown and kwomo who who launched but even in the hours since making the announcement Even really prior to making the announcement other states were signing on and that continued as sort of as a rush through the first week after president trump announced The united states would would be leaving the paris climate agreement since then others have joined and again Crucially and importantly, it's bipartisan. You know, this shouldn't be But unfortunately has been cast this being climate policy and climate action has been cast and then unfortunately partisan lens and in much of policymaking across the country, but This is a bipartisan coalition and and you're certainly to see it grow. We're talking with other With a number of other states some whom you might not expect to be The first to the to the to the game about them joining as well And I think you're going to continue seeing it through this year and then after next year there's There's going to be a large turnover in an obviously gubernatorial leadership next year with so many Most states 36 states have elections and many governors are retiring You're going to see probably a fair amount of turnover ahead of 2019 and I think as important as anything is that I've seen the Dialogue and the political lens on climate change shift Just in the last year in the United States having worked in this policy space for a decade And others can I'm sure to talk about even prior the the attention the way it was talked about In the political sphere in the news media. I think has decidedly changed I think I think more and more americans first of all Understand that it's happening as we speak again not a sort of a future or abstract problem or not a problem at all And I think they understand that there are solutions to be to be had and to be implemented And I think they're eager to do that And I think that Americans have sort of recoiled at at the United States At a national level at a federal level saying we don't want to be a part of this global community in this way anymore I think by and large americans want to see quite the opposite happen And I think you're going to see more and more than speak out and say that and and in turn that will lead to More elected leaders at all levels of government Taking action and and pursuing policy goals towards that end Great. Thank you. And I want to say please join me in thanking our wonderful wonderful panel And really really appreciate all your being here And thank you all so much and please we look forward to working with all of you in the months ahead. Thanks


They are also known as rigs or skeletons, and like skeletons, armature objects are made up of bones. Bones are the individually moving parts of a skeleton or armature that dictate where and how the skeleton can move, just like real bones in a real skeleton. With armature objects, we can create and edit bones and then transform these bones to animate them. Let's see how that works. First things first, you can add armatures to your scene by going to the add menu and selecting armature. This will add an armature with a single bone. The cube is a bit in the way, so let's hide it for now in our Outliner. For hotkey users, you can also select the cube and press H as in hide. With this armature object, we have two modes other than object mode that we can go into. We can edit the bones by going into edit mode and we can pose bones in pose mode. Posing is where you'll be doing most of your bone animation as well. You can enter both of these modes by going to the top left hand corner, but for hotkey users, you can also press tab to toggle in and out of edit mode and control tab to toggle in and out of pose mode. But right now, we only have one bone, so let's go into edit mode and change that. Once we're in edit mode, the bones that make up our armature object can now be edited. This is very similar to how we edit vertices, edges, and faces for a mesh in edit mode.  The head is the base of the bone and also its pivot point. The tail is the narrower end of the bone and the body is the main body. You can edit bones in three ways. You can select and move both the head and tail of the bone individually, or you can select the middle of the bone and move, rotate, or scale the bone as a whole. Now that we know that, I'm going to very quickly try to rig the spine of this character. You can download this character in the description down below. Let's go ahead and add an armature object like we did before and then go into edit mode and drag the tail of our bone all the way up to the top of his head. If we want to add more bones, we can also do that in a number of ways. Using the add menu at the top, we'll add a new single bone, not parented to any existing bones, which you can then move wherever you want. But if we want to attach it to our existing bone, we'll have to parent one to the other. Parenting plays a huge role in armatures and bone relationships as it drives the foundation of how a rig moves. When we select our new bone and parent it to our existing bone in edit mode, you'll find a few different options. Connected and keep offset. Connected will automatically move the entire child bone to the location of the tail of the parent bone. This is because connected bones must share a head and a tail. This is great for bone chains like spines where the joints are perfectly shared. However, keep offset will ignore this requirement and act similarly to how object parenting works where transformation is inherited regardless of the child's relative position to the parent. This is great for ears or eyes where the pivot of the deformation doesn't relate to the parent's tail position. Another way to create bones is to simply select a bone and subdivide it. This is done by using the right click context menu and selecting subdivide. This will turn your selection into a chain of connected bones. As usual, you will have an operator panel appear in the bottom left that you can expand and adjust the number of cuts. But you can also extrude new bones from existing bones by using the extrude tool. This can be found in the left hand side quick tools menu in the same way the extrude tool is used on meshes. For hotkey users, you can press E as an extrude as well in the same way. You can extrude bones from the head or the tail of a bone. Make sure you have one or the other selected and use the extrude tool. You can also extrude multiple bones depending on how many heads or tails you have selected. Bones created from extrusion are connected by default. You can disconnect these bones by un-parenting them, which can be done through the right click context menu, going to parent and selecting clear. For hotkey users, you can also press alt P. However, here we'll see two options pop up. Disconnect will disconnect the bones, allowing you to move them away from the tail without affecting the bone it was connected to. But it will keep the bone parented to the other bone with an offset. Does this sound familiar? Well, that's because this is the same state as the keep offset option when parenting bones. On the other hand, selecting clear parent will disconnect and sever the parent-child relationship completely. Another tool you can use from the toolbar is the roll tool. Bone roll dictates simply how a bone is rotated along its vertical axis. This is typically its local y-axis. Why would you want to use the roll tool? Well, assuming you have something simple like an elbow to deform, and you know elbows only bend in one direction, you would want that direction to be along an axis of rotation, x, y, or z. To view the axes of your bones, simply go to the armature data tab of your properties editor, denoted by this green stick figure icon. Then go to viewport display and check axis. Suddenly all of your bones axes will become visible. You can use the roll tool by simply left-click dragging anywhere in the viewport to rotate the axes of the bone to align with how you want it to transform later. You can also edit the roll in the bone tab of the properties editor, denoted by this green bone icon. Simply left-click drag the roll value, or left-click tap and enter a number manually. And the last bone editing tool you can select is the bone size tool. This is not the same as scaling the bone, and you'll notice that if you left-click drag, it doesn't do anything. That's because these changes are only visible with a different bone display. Simply go back into the armature tab of the properties editor. Under viewport display, we can open this dropdown to select different kinds of bone displays. For the bone size tool to reflect any changes, you'll want to choose either the B bones or the envelopes display. Now when we left-click drag this tool, you can see the width of our bone changing. You can read more about what each of these bone types do in the official documentation, which you can find in the description down below. But most of the time, you can choose one based on preference. I typically keep it on octahedral, but some people prefer stick, for example, to simplify the visuals. Now let's go ahead and talk about how to use these bones for animation. In order to do that, we need to understand how pose mode works. Let's go into pose mode by either selecting it from the dropdown or pressing control tab. This will then turn all of our selected bones blue. Transforming a bone here will actually record location, rotation, and scale in the individual bone data. With this, we can finally add keyframes for these bones in pose mode by right-clicking and going to insert keyframe lock-rod scale. This lets us animate. But you may have noticed that when we move our bones, our character still doesn't move. So how do we make sure our bones actually move our character? In object mode, we can simply select the mesh, shift select the armature object, and open the parenting menu either through the right-click context menu or control P. You then might notice the option for armature to form, with three sub-options below that. The most commonly used one is with automatic weights, as it gives us a great starting point, but feel free to read up on the other two options in the official documentation. Once we've selected this, you'll notice that when you transform individual bones, each bone has been assigned a group of vertices that will deform with it. This is being handled by vertex groups, also known as weights, which have been automatically generated by Blunder based on the placement of the bones relative to the mesh. We'll be going over vertex groups in a separate video. If you select your mesh and go into its modifiers tab, denoted by the wrench icon, you'll notice that it now has a new modifier as well, the armature modifier. This is how Blunder uses armature objects to deform meshes based on the transformation of individual bones. Now obviously this rig is incomplete, and if you want to learn how to rig the entire character, you can head over to our character rigging video, but I hope this gave you a good idea of how armature objects work and how to edit them.


Its global strike command airmen conducted an operational test launch of an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, February 9th, to demonstrate the readiness of the U.S. nuclear forces and provide confidence in the lethality and effectiveness of the nation's nuclear deterrent. Today's test launch used a randomly selected intercontinental ballistic missile pulled from Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota. The missile was transported more than 1,300 miles and reassembled at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The ICBM was equipped with a single-test reentry vehicle and traveled approximately 4,200 miles at a speed of more than 15,000 miles per hour to a test range near the Quadalina Toll in the Marshall Islands. The ICBM test and evaluation program helps validate the reliability the nuclear umbrella our allies and partners rely on, eliminating the need to obtain their own nuclear weapons to counter potential adversaries. The 50-year-old Minuteman III is based in Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Wyoming and will be replaced by the LGM-35A Sentinel. Reporting from Vandenberg Space Force Base, I'm Air Force Staff Sergeant Drake Lehmann.