UN asks NZ’s Rod Carr to join major global group
New York - The UN’s secretary general António Guterres has asked New Zealand’s Dr Rod Carr to join an elite world group to look into climate change issues.
Guterres today launched his expert world group to develop stronger and clearer standards for net-zero emissions pledges including businesses, investors, cities and regions and to speed up their implementation.
The invitations to the group of 16 are in their personal capacities rather than as Government representatives.
Dr Carr is Chair of the New Zealand Climate Change Commission, former Chair of the board and once acting governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, a director of the Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce for ten years and former vice-chancellor of the University of Canterbury.
Despite growing pledges of climate action, global emissions are at an all-time high. They continue to rise. The latest science shows that climate disruption is causing havoc in every region, right now.
Guterres says the planet is in a race against time to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees, and the world is losing.
To avert a climate catastrophe, the planet needs bold pledges matched by concrete action. Tougher net-zero standards and strengthened accountability around the implementation of these commitments can deliver real and immediate emissions cuts.
The expert group’s recommendations for higher ambition and environmental integrity will address four areas:
• Current standards and definitions for setting net-zero targets;
• Credibility criteria used to assess the objectives, measurement and reporting of net-zero pledges;
• Processes for verification and accounting of progress towards net-zero commitments and reported decarbonisation plans;
• A roadmap to translate standards and criteria into international and national level regulations.
Last year at COP26 in Glasgow, Guterres said he would convene a group of independent international experts to make recommendations on how to strengthen current processes to set, measure, report and verify net zero commitments.
The group will be chaired by Canada’s former Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Members include academics, business people, regulators and the former Governor of the People’s Bank of China.
For further information contact Make Lemonade’s editor-in-chief Kip Brook on 0275 030188
Lisa was born in Auckland at the start of the 1970s, living in a small campsite community on the North Shore called Browns Bay. She spent a significant part of her life with her grandparents, often hanging out at the beaches. Lisa has many happy memories from those days at Browns Bay beach, where fish were plentiful on the point and the ocean was rich in seaweed. She played in the water for hours, going home totally “sun-kissed.” “An adorable time to grow up,” Lisa tells me.
Lisa enjoyed many sports; she was a keen tennis player and netballer, playing in the top teams for her age right up until the family moved to Wellington. Lisa was fifteen years old, which unfortunately marked the end of her sporting career. Local teams were well established in Wellington, and her attention was drawn elsewhere.