TED Talks Daily
How small countries can make a big impact on climate change | Nicola Sturgeon
09 Nov 2021
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
You're listening to TED Talks Daily. I'm Elise Hugh. We know that the world's biggest countries and companies must act if we have any hope of curbing climate change. But small countries and territories have led on many fronts in reducing global emissions.
In her talk at the 2021 Countdown Summit in Edinburgh, Scotland, the first minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, reminds us how small places keep climate action momentum going. Listen till the end for a brief Q&A with TED's global curator, Bruno Giussani. I'm going to start today with a question.
Chapter 2: What is the significance of small countries in combating climate change?
In other contexts, perhaps a risky question, not one you would expect from somebody in my position in a talk about climate change. But it's important. Does size matter? My answer, perhaps also unexpected, is that no, it really, really doesn't. And Scotland... Scotland is proving that.
About a mile from here in the National Museum of Scotland, you will find on display a steam engine designed by the great engineer James Watt. A hundred miles from here, just off the coast of Aberdeen, is the world's biggest floating wind farm. And then, just a bit further north from there, in the Pentland Firth, we find the biggest wave power turbine being tested.
These are all extraordinary feats of technology and engineering, but they also demonstrate how Scotland, a relatively small country, led the world into the industrial age and is now helping to power the world into the net zero age. And there's a lesson for us in that.
Chapter 3: How is Scotland demonstrating leadership in climate action?
When we talk about tackling climate change, we so often talk about the contributions of America, Russia, China, Brazil. And that's important. We won't limit global warming without these countries. But we also have to recognise that the ambition, the leadership and the action of small countries matters too. Small countries have no time for small objectives, and I really agree with that.
And we see examples of the leadership that small countries show everywhere we look. Take Bhutan. One million people or thereabouts became the first in the world to commit to being carbon neutral for all time. Since then, 130 countries of all sizes have followed suit. Or Fiji.
In 2017, it hosted the UN Climate Conference and did so much to highlight the existential threat that climate change poses to island nations. Now, a country like Scotland, with a rich industrial past, has a special responsibility. We have disproportionately contributed to climate change, so we must do more now to help tackle climate change.
So in recent years, Scotland, this small country, has decarbonised faster than any G20 country. We have just become... We have just become the first nation in the world that is not an independent nation yet to publish... to publish... An indicative nationally defined contribution showing how we will meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement.
So we've pledged to cut emissions by three quarters by 2030 and to be net zero by 2045. We're also seeking to galvanise change on the global stage. So we are currently the co-chair of a coalition that brings together 200 states, regions, devolved countries like ours to demonstrate leadership in meeting the challenge of climate change. Now, that coalition is not represented formally at UN summits.
We're not signatories to the treaties that emerge from these summits. But collectively, we represent two billion people across the world. And about half of the reduction in global emissions that we need to see will depend on the actions we take. They will depend on the legislation we pass. the infrastructure we build, the investments we fund.
So my point today is that, yes, big countries matter, but the leadership of small nations matters too. It's often states and regions and small nations that can step in when the bigger countries fail to act. So when Trump disgracefully took America out of the Paris Agreement, it was a coalition of states and cities that kept the momentum going.
And if we raise our ambition and if we follow that through with action, then we can spur the bigger countries to go further and faster too. And there's one final point where our voice and our contribution matters. So often, it's states or devolved nations like Scotland that have to respond most directly to the impacts of climate change.
Heat waves, floods, hurricanes, we have to deal with the implication. Now, for Scotland, California, New South Wales, that's difficult but manageable. For many others across the world, It is not. So climate justice matters too. It's not enough to cut our own emissions, although that is vital. We have to make sure we are helping those who have done the least to cause climate change to do so too.
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