A Greener World

| Five years after the Paris Agreement, the UN calls on the world to “declare a state of climate emergency”. Here is a webtalk with Laurent Fabius, former president of COP21 and a letter from Monika Langthaler, Director of the Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative.

Dear friends of the Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative,

“Don´t listen to the naysayers,” Arnold Schwarzenegger said to his guests at the first Charity Dinner for Climate Protection in Kitzbühel in January.

At this point, he – and none of us – could not yet know which challenges the year 2020 would present us with and how difficult it would be to meet these challenge.

But as Karl Popper once wrote: “Optimism is a duty. You have to focus on the things that need to be done and for which you are responsible”.
We are all responsible for our environment and our climate.

We must now ensure that developments are heading in the right direction – towards a sustainable and healthy planet. Because a pandemic will not stop climate change.
This year we have kept the spotlight on climate protection and continued working for a green economic recovery.

We can look back on a successful year: At the Charity Dinner and the spectacular auction in Kitzbühel we were able to collect almost one million euros for climate protection.

Our platform “Climate Action Stories” is continuing to grow and shows what is possible when you actively implement concrete projects.

With our “Climate Action Magazine” and our newsletter we now have new ways of keeping you all up to date on our work.

And above all, the iron will to organize the AUSTRIAN WORLD SUMMIT was rewarded.

After all, with more than 620,000 people watching via livestream and almost 1.3 billion people reached by international media coverage around the world, the summit in Vienna was the largest international climate conference of the year.

We succeeded in reminding the global community of the opportunities of a green economy and the need for a green economic recovery.

The end of this year also brings an important anniversary: on the 12th of December 2015, 195 nations of the world adopted the Paris Agreement. A historic moment, followed by incredible enthusiasm and drive.

The 5th anniversary gives us reason to take a look at what remains of this euphoria, what has been achieved in the implementation of the goals and in which direction work must continue.

And who better could take this look with us, than the father of the climate treaty himself? Laurent Fabius.

I have spoken with him and hope that the short interview, which you can see in the video below, will inspire you all to continue working towards more climate protection in the years to come.

We will certainly do so and look forward to keeping you up to date on our work. Merry Christmas and a happy new year!