[GWSG] $2.6T divested; Rockström hopeful; Pope to UN; UN sustainability program; sustainable growth; US-China statement

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Individual and institutional pledges to divest from fossil fuels now top $2.6 trillion, a fifty-fold increase in one year.  http://blueandgreentomorrow.com/2015/09/22/fossil-fuel-divestment-pledges-surpass-2-6-trillion/



2.  Johan Rockström, executive director of the Stockholm Resilience Center, uses analysis of planetary boundaries as his frame to explain why he is optimistic that we will be able to create a sustainable world in time to continue to enjoy something like the stable environment of the Holocene, our last 12,000 years.  His book Big World, Small Planet enlarges on his ideas.  http://e360.yale.edu/feature/one_scientists_hopeful_view_on_how_to_repair_the_planet/2913/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+YaleEnvironment360+%28Yale+Environment+360%29



3.  In his address to the UN, the Pope took the position that the environment itself has rights.  He warned that "The ecological crisis, and the large-scale disruption of biodiversity, can threaten the very existence of the human species."  The root cause is the unconstrained pursuit of wealth and power-greed, in short.  He found hope in the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustained Development, and expressed confidence in the prospect that December's climate talks would "secure fundamental and effective agreements."  Climate has been a theme in every address so far in the Pope's visit to the US.   http://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2015/sep/25/pope-francis-united-nations-speech-annotated



4.  The UN General Assembly has approved the 2030 Agenda for Sustained Development, which consists of seventeen goals and 169 subsidiary targets.  The goals include ending hunger and poverty, achieving gender equality, increasing renewable energy, reducing inequality, and taking "urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts"  (Goal 13).  https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics



5.  A German report underscores the decoupling of economic health from the continued use of fossil fuels.  In 2004-14 OECD countries experienced a 16% economic expansion and a 6.4% cut in emissions.  http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/sep/26/oecd-heinrich-boll-international-energy-association-greenhouse-emissions-global-gdp



6.  The US and China have issued a joint declaration of commitment to climate action.  China, which has been experimenting with regional cap and trade arrangements, intends to begin a national program in 2017.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/us-china-climate_56056f02e4b0dd850307436a   ?

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