Dr Robin Niblett CMG
Right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Chatham House, I think for many of you, maybe most of you. Fantastic to have you back in the building. Also, fantastic to have many of you joining us online, as you’ve done before and, actually, I think, as we’ve all discussed, it’s been a huge benefit to be able to have this mix of people online and also in the room for all of our meetings. You will notice it’ll stay chilly in here, as our air handling device circulates the air especially well. But we’re really pleased to be able to have you back here today, partly ‘cause this is one of the closing events of our centenary year. We’ve managed to stretch it, given that we were founded in July 1920, so we counted July 2020 as the beginning of our centenary year. I think we can run it past the summer of 2021.
And appropriately, we’re going to use this for a period where we’re awarding some of our special Centenary Awards. And it’s my special delight, and I meant to say this right at the beginning, ‘cause I won’t get a chance to say it much more this evening, to welcome back Sir David Attenborough, who is the winner of one of our special Centenary Awards, most importantly, the Lifetime Centenary Award from Chatham House. And I can say welcome back, Sir David, because actually, one of the last big meetings we had on this stage was where you won the Chatham House Prize, our annual prize. Her Majesty the Queen, our Patron, came and awarded it to you here, back in November 2019. Seems like a long, long time ago. But we’ll say more about all of that later, but it’s my pleasure to welcome you and Susan back to Chatham House.
Now, what’s different about these Centenary Awards as compared to the normal Chatham House Prize, and I’m calling it normal, is that it has been voted on not by our members, you, who vote on the Chatham House Prize, but by our staff. And I think we felt, as an institute, all of us, it was important to take the temperature of the staff at Chatham House, those who carry the flag for this institute today, in 2021, was 2020, when we were making these calls. And I think it’s especially interesting, ‘cause I was saying to my colleagues when we were meeting with David and Susan before, that it is – the spirit, in a way, of Chatham House today is probably very different from what it would’ve been in 2000 or in 1950, or in 1920, and you can see that in these three awards.
As I said, Sir David Attenborough has won the Lifetime Award. The Centenary Diversity Champion Award has been won by Melina Abdullah, who is the Co-Founder of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Black Lives Matter movement and co-Director of the Black Lives Matter Grassroots movement. And we’ll be celebrating her award tomorrow with an event here, but I’m especially pleased, Melina, you’re with us this evening. So, welcome to Chatham House, to you and your family. Fantastic to have you with us for one of these two awards. And then, the Changemakers Award, also voted on by Chatham House staff, is going to be presented at the right moment, I’m sure it’ll be after COP26, to Greta Thunberg. There is a theme, and I won’t overplay it tonight, ‘cause I’ll be stating the obvious. But again, that spirit of Chatham House staff and what we work on today and we’ll be hearing some of that vision, some of that thinking about the future, in the programme this evening.
And let me turn to that programme, because after I step down here, I’m going to invite up Professor Tim Benton. Tim, who’s Research Director and Director of our Environment and Society Programme, he and his colleagues put forward the nomination for Sir David for this award. And the award, voted on by staff and put forward by our ESP Team, and so, we’ll have three of his colleagues on stage with us talking about their work, their undertaking and the kind of inspiration, David, that you’ve also, with your work, given to them. After that, we will have a quick video, where some of our staff will talk about why they voted specifically for David Attenborough and then we will give the award.
So, to remind everyone here, especially you joining us outside this room, we’re on the record. This is being recorded. Tweet away CHEvents, #CHEvents. If you’re online, we won’t have a lot of time for questions, I suspect, but Tim will squeeze, I’m sure, a little bit in and if you’re online, you get a chance to get your question in early in the Q&A function. Do not use the chat on Zoom. Please put your question in Q&A. You might be unmuted if you want to be. If you don’t want to be unmuted, please let Tim know. He will be keeping an eye on his screen here. For those of you in the room, if we can squeeze a couple of questions in. Stay seated, wait for the boom mic to come to you, remove your mask to ask the question, put it back on again, very simple. Thank you very much.
So, look, I’m going to get off the stage and let us get on with the programme. I’m going to welcome Tim Benton, my Chatham House colleagues in the Environment Society Programme, and we will then get on with the programme. Thank you very much [applause].
Professor Tim Benton
Thank you, Robin [applause]. Thank you very much, Robin. Helen, Anna, Jiangwen, as Robin said, we are here today to present the Centenary Award from Chatham House to Sir David, who is almost a centenary – centenarian himself. So, over his lifetime, which has been more or less the course of Chatham House’s lifetime, Sir David has been obviously one of the most influential public facing champions for nature in the world. And I’m Head of the ESP Programme, but I’m also a Professor of Ecology and I’d just like to take this opportunity to give my personal thanks to Sir David and to say how influential he has been to me and to millions like me, in terms of turning our interest to the natural world.
So, I started up, I grew up reading Zoo Quest, Sir David’s books accompanying his stories from the 1950s, where he went all around the world looking at and filming famous things. And one of the first programmes that I remember watching when we got a television, in 1970, was a rerun of Zoo Quest, what was it, Zoo Quest for a Dragon, your film of Komodo dragons, which for those of you who don’t know, are the biggest lizards that live today, up to about ten feet long, and this really stuck in my mind. And then, as I went through school, interested in natural history, etc., Life on Earth came out and that cemented my desire to study zoology at university. I went through my undergraduate career, started getting interested in ecology and Trials of Life came out, which is the – about animal behaviour. And that really set me on my way, and it set me on my way so much, I went to work for a film company for a while, filming natural history, and worked out that it was really much more difficult than it looks like on – when Sir David presents it.
And then, after I’d done some work, Sir David stepped up to be a patron for an expedition that I was helping to run to go to the Pitcairn Islands, which are remote islands in the middle of the Pacific, millions of miles away from anywhere. And we stayed on this remote island called Henderson, which is, kind of, halfway – I was trying to put – thinking about putting a Post-it on the map on the wall, but it’s halfway between New Zealand and South America. And the island we stayed on, I was there to look at the kind of, the insect ecology, but it was, you know, supposed to be a pristine ecosystem. But it really woke up to me how much we had changed the world, because although it’s one of the most remote islands in the world, all the beaches were covered in rubbish and when we looked back through the history of the animals that lived there, through the, kind of, deposits, we’ve realised that 500 years or so ago the Polynesians had lived on the island and had made several species go extinct.
And so, that was, for me, a kind of, wakening up and my career then followed, moving from studying ecology, to worrying about ecology and to working to help make the world more sustainable. And over the kind of, pres – following years, Sir David has gone, also, much more vocally around thinking not just about the natural world, but what we should do to preserve the natural world. So, from me to you, Sir David, a real personal thanks for the way you have inspired and influenced me and countless others and the way you have inspired so many to the wonders of the natural world has helped shift the concept of sustainability away from something that people wearing sandals and growing beards studied, to being a mainstream concern. And this is reflected here at Chatham House, with our increasing recognition of the importance of the environment to shaping international affairs.
So, turning to our panel, given this opportunity of the Centenary Award, we can reflect on the past 100 years, how the world has changed, and we can reflect on the importance of the next decade or so in setting the course for the next hundreds or thousands of years, as you, yourself, have said, Sir David. Our panel discussion aims to address three critical areas of concern: biodiversity loss, climate change and the geopolitics that, effectively, shape whether or not we will be able to make the world a more sustainable place.
So, I’m very pleased to be able to introduce three of my colleagues from the Environment and Society Programme, who will each speak for five/six/seven minutes and then, hopefully, we’ll have some time for questions. So, first to speak, and I’ll introduce them all in turn, will be Dr Helen Harwatt, who is Senior Research Fellow and an international award-winning Researcher, having completed research fellowships in the UK and USA, most recently at Harvard Law School. Helen focuses on food system transformation and the cascading benefits for climate, biodiversity, land and rewilding. Published a number of very influential high impact papers and she said to me this morning, she spends as much of her time as possible “exploring nature with” her “rescue dogs.”
Then we will hear from Anna Åberg.
Anna Åberg
It’s fine.
Professor Tim Benton
Or Anna Åberg, as she’s called in the group. Anna is a Research Analyst who’s worked focused – focuses on international climate politics, UN climate negotiations and climate finance. She was previously a Desk Officer at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, working on global ocean issues, humanitarian policy and Sweden’s relations with the World Bank Group.
And finally, introducing Jiangwen Guo, who is Senior Research Fellow who specialise in energy, climate policy, environmental governance, sustainable supply chains, and green growth planning and implementation. She has more than 20 years’ experience in the related areas in developing countries, with significant policy deployment. Currently leading our UK-China Climate Risk Assessment Project to ensure that climate risk assessment leads to effective climate management at global, national and subnational levels. So, there’s our panel. Enough from me, over to you, Helen.
Dr Helen Harwatt
Thank you.
Professor Tim Benton
Five minutes or so.
Dr Helen Harwatt
Thank you, Tim, and hello, everybody. So, I’m going to just cover the big picture, mainly, around biodiversity loss and I am going to use some of Sir David’s words throughout that. So, I’m going to cover three main things, first of all gloom, hope and finishing with the future. So, starting with the gloom, so, the global decline in biodiversity, over the past century, is alarming and in Sir David’s words, “This is a story of global decline in one lifetime. Human beings have overrun the world.” So, globally, we’ve seen declines in the populations of birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and fish by an average of around two thirds. We’ve lost half of the rainforest, 90% of large fish have gone from the oceans and more than 80% of freshwater populations have been lost. And going forward, these trends are expected to continue. Around one million species are threatened with extinction in the next decades and we’re currently clearing an area of forest around the size of England and Wales per year.
So, agriculture is actually the main contributor to these trends and is the continued driver, going forward. So, this occurs through land clearing – being the main cause of land clearing, chemical pollution of land, rivers and ocean, leading to huge dead zones and of course, a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to the process of climate change, which affects biodiversity in many ways. There’s also a contribution through the direct killing and removal of wildlife, so, for example, where it is interfering with livestock as a predator, or potential disease source. And really, land is an absolutely critical resource in this picture, and it really determines the option space, and to use some more of Sir David’s words, “The biggest landgrab ever has been for agriculture.”
So, currently, 49% of habitable land is used for agriculture. Most of that is actually used for animal agriculture. The livestock population globally has increased threefold since 1960 and now, if we look at all of the mammal mass on the planet, 60% of that mass is actually livestock and 71% of the mass of all birds is livestock, as well. So, going forward, meat, dairy and egg consumption is rising and will continue rising. That’s mainly from chickens and pigs. And if we couple that with global human population growth and increasing wealth, there is definitely going to be an expansion of agricultural land in pristine habitats, for example, going forward. And a really interesting and key thing with agriculture and biodiversity is that agriculture actually relies on biodiversity to be functional. So, for example, most crops depend on pollinators.
So, second, the hope. So, food system transformation, and this is something that we work on at Chatham House and, really, this gives us the opportunity to reverse those trends and actually restore biodiversity. So, we published a report in February this year and in that, we proposed three main levers of change and those are to change what we produce and consume, how we produce food and also, to protect and restore carbon sinks and habitats. So, changing what we produce and consume is really the, kind of, critical enabling factor in this. So, it gives us the biggest reduction from shifting to plant-based diets. That gives us around a 50% reduction in [inaudible – 21:25], around a 70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and around a 60 – a 76% reduction in land used for agriculture. And as Sir David pointed out recently, “The planet can’t support billions of large meat eaters. There’s simply not enough space.”
So, the extent to how we, kind of, go down that plant-based diet spectrum really depends the extent to which we can remove the pressure on converting more land for agriculture. It also determines the extent that we can give space for habitat restoration and also the extent to which we can give space to do nature friendly farming, which tends to require more space than conventional production. And within all of this, a systems approach is absolutely essential. We really need to look at production, trade, food environment and consumers and we absolutely need to tackle food waste in that picture, as well.
So, finally, the future. Promisingly, the conservation and the rewilding agendas are both growing, and to use some more of Sir David’s words, “We must rewild the world. This is the only way out of this crisis we’ve created.” Protecting biodiversity, the remaining biodiversity, the remaining carbon sinks, is absolutely essential and there’s really huge scope for restoration, as well. So, one study I was involved in, for example, we looked at restoring around 12 million square kilometres of agricultural land, enabled through a diet shift to mostly plant-based. And that would actually remove around 550 gigatons of CO2 from the atmosphere over 30 years, which is equivalent to around 60 years of current CO2 emissions or around half of the carbon dioxide removal required to limit temperature rise to 1½°, according to the IPPC. The oceans are really promising, as well, for the restoration agenda, so, for example, restoring predator populations to enable coastal vegetation to flourish again and actually remove CO2 from the atmosphere quite rapidly.
Both the restoration and the conservation agendas need to start now and there’s most potential for the restoration agendas, actually, in high-income countries and middle-income countries, which is what we found in our analysis. So, there’s certainly a really important role for wealthy nations to play in this. It’s also really important to link the habitat restoration agendas with the reintroduction of wild animals, in order to really create those functioning ecosystems.
So, I just want to finish with a couple more quotes from Sir David. So, “We need to learn how to work with nature, rather than against it.” And just in case there aren’t any nature lovers with us today, this really isn’t a kind of, benevolent mission just for the benefit of nature. So, going back to Sir David again, “A species can only thrive when the species around it thrive too. It’s not about saving our planet; it’s about saving ourselves.” Thank you [applause].
Professor Tim Benton
Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Helen. I see that we’re already frighteningly behind the agenda. So, rather than me quizzing you on something, I’ll pass straight over to Anna to talk about the climate.
Anna Åberg
Thanks, Tim and thanks, Helen. Hi, everyone, it’s such a pleasure and a big honour to be here tonight. Helen has given us a very frank and a very alarming picture of the global state of biodiversity and why it matters for all of us. As Tim said, I’m going to be speaking about the twin crisis, climate change. In fact, these crises, the crisis of climate change and of biodiversity destruction, they’re so deeply linked that it’s hard to talk about one, without also talking about the other. And you certainly cannot solve one without addressing the other simultaneously.
Because nature is a key ally, it’s one of our best friends in the fight against climate change. For example, the marine and terrestrial ecosystems, so trees, plants, they store more than half of the carbon in the atmosphere every year. But climate change is having a devastating impact on nature and limiting its ability to protect us in this way. So, we need to look at this holistically and we need to address both of these issues simultaneously.
So, climate change, where do we stand? Well, since the Industrial Revolution, the rise in the global average temperature is already 1.1°. Surprise, surprise, humans are to blame. Since then, our emissions have skyrocketed and the concentration of carbon in the atmosphere is now higher than at any point in at least two million years, and the consequences are becoming terrifyingly clear. Last summer, a quarter of Bangladesh was flooded, one quarter, and we all know what happened this summer. It provides a bitter foretaste of what lies ahead.
Sir David was born in 1926 and it’s quite overwhelming, isn’t it, to think about the changes that can occur within one man’s lifetime and to think about the changes that may occur in the lifetime of those born today. My colleagues at Chatham House, they published a Climate Risk Assessment just a few weeks ago and they found that, already in the 2030s, so just a few years away, 400 million people per year are likely be – to be unable to work outside, due to extreme heat. Around ten million people, so approximately the population of Sweden, which is my home country, are expected to be exposed to heat so extreme that it can kill. And by 2040, one third of global cropland is expected to be exposed to severe draught every year, and the list goes on and on and on.
Many of these impacts will be so severe that they go beyond what we can adapt to, and obviously, the implications for economic development, political and social insecurity, international relations, will be huge. In his powerful address to the UN Security Council in February, Sir David said that “If we continue on our current path, we will face the collapse of everything that gives us security,” and he’s right.
So, climate change is already affecting, essentially, all areas we work on here at Chatham House, but I think it’s fair to say that during our second century of existence, climate change and biodiversity discussion – destruction will be absolutely centre stage. But several of Sir David’s documentaries and speeches end with a note of hope, a call to action, and there is hope. We’re not mere passengers on this journey. We can change course, but it is still possible to limit warming to 1.5°, this critical threshold for avoiding the most dangerous climate change impacts. But this window of opportunity is closing very fast and that is why COP26, the UN’s Climate Change Summit, which is taking place in Glasgow in just 2½ weeks’ time, feels like it’s been coming forever, is so important.
So, what’s this meeting about and where would we stand? Well, we already have an international agreement to combat climate change. That’s the Paris Agreement adopted six years ago. COP26 is about raising ambition and implementing that agreement. And you know, I wish I could sit here saying that world leaders have this all covered, we can sleep soundly, everything is on track, but unfortunately, quite a lot of work remains. Progress has been made, but more governments need to submit ambitious 2030 emission reductions targets, especially the G20 countries. The UN came out with an analysis a few weeks ago, which took stock of how, kind of, things are going, also looking at the targets that have already been submitted, and we’re on track for a rise in emissions of 16% by 2030. And just to put this in context, to align with the 1.5°, emission would need to fall by 45% by 2030, compared to 2010 levels.
More also needs to be done on climate finance. More than a decade ago, developed countries promised to mobilise – whoops, US$100 billion per year for climate action in developing countries. There have been positive announcements in recent weeks, but we’re still not there. There are lots of other issues that are important to talk about too, but I won’t take up all of the time here tonight. I think it’s, you know, it’s fair to say at this point that COP26 won’t achieve everything that we need it to achieve, but it is really important that substantial progress is made, so that confidence is built about the direction of travel and that we provide, kind of, the groundwork for really accelerating action in the early 2020s, because this is the critical decade.
There are things that make me hopeful about climate change, more broadly. One thing is the improving economics of climate action. The cost of renewables and clean technologies has fallen dramatically, and more and more governments are talking about green jobs, and they highlight the economic, kind of, benefits of transition, in addition to the planetary benefits. The other thing is public engagement. All across the world we’re seeing people, especially young people, take to the streets demanding stronger action from their leaders and from companies. Climate change is a major issue in elections, and this is really important. We need public pressure and we need public engagement, and Sir David Attenborough has, of course, through is amazing work, played an instrumental role in bringing about this shift, increasing awareness and, I think, making it real to people what this is about.
So, I’d like to, kind of, finish on a note on challenges, and I won’t be talking about the big power politics, the US-China relationship, because Jiangwen will do that. But one thing I would like to point to is the divided recovery. In richer countries, large shares of the populations have now been vaccinated. We have injected enormous amounts of monies to prop up our economies that would otherwise have been ravaged by COVID-19. The picture in developing countries, in many developing countries, at least, is very different. I think only 4% of people in low-income countries have been jabbed. The IMF assesses half of all low-income countries to be at high risk of debt distress or in debt distress. And of course, this matters for a whole range of reasons, but it also matters for climate change.
It undermines trust between countries. It might prevent countries from perhaps submitting more ambitious targets and it will certainly impact the extent to which pledges can be implemented and the extent to which governments are able to invest in adaptation and resilience. So, to address biodiversity destruction and climate change, I think we do really need a stronger concerted effort in these times to ensure that we all emerge out of this nightmare of a pandemic in a better way. I’ll leave it there, thank you [applause].
Professor Tim Benton
Thank you. Thank you very much, Anna. I was thinking about breaking into you, but it was such an impassioned speech, I didn’t dare. It was brilliant, thank you very much. Now, finally, handing over to Jiangwen to talk about – so, it’s all very well and good to say we need to save the world, we need to do X, Y and Z, but this is an institute of international affairs. What is the state of the global geopolitics, particularly with respect to US-China or China, and are we going to be able to achieve it? So, Jiangwen, give us some thoughts.
Jiangwen Guo
Thank you, Tim. It’s a very big topic, a big headache for me. So, echoing what Helen and Anna talk about, the biodiversity and the climate change, the global issue. It’s very important for the big powers to take actions. However, beyond that, we need a global effort. It’s like the Biodiversity COP15 opens this Monday in China. The theme is Ecocivilisation: Building up a Shared Future for All on Earth. That echoes to the proposal at this ESDU assembly that the Global Development Initiative propose by China. So, having such internat – such a voice to international community, China is also doing their works at home, including implementing their 14th five-year and developing their 2035 National Strategy and, also, the 1+N policy package.
Today, we take the great opportunity and the pleasure of Sir David attendance of Chatham House Century Awards, looking back what happened in the last 100 years. When Sir David was born, China was in war lands. Until the Civil War ended, Sir David has accomplished his service at the Royal Navy. In 1979, when the remarkable documentary of Sir David, Life of Earth, astonished the world, China was a 5% size of the US economy and now, China has achieved lifting up almost 100 million population out of the poverty. So, it’s obviously, over the century, China has been completely different, significantly different. However, there is still long way for China to go of their development. The GDP per capita in China is just $9,000, which is way lower than the developed economies. So, the economy growth still is a priority of China’s social and devel – economy development. And, also, under the announcement of the 2060 carbon neutrality target, from the carbon peaking to carbon neutrality, the window left for China is only 30 years, which is 45 for US and around 60 years for the EU and someone argues that it’s 80 years for the UK, if taking – that they must take carbon peaking in 1972. And, also, the carbon neutrality target in China it covers all greenhouse gases. That means if China – China now is taking the green transition is their basic strategy pathway. That meaning this implies a even steeper slope for this long journey.
So, China’s 2030 and the 2060 targets, it’s based on their domestic need, because they need a green transition. However, there is also an international geopolitics consideration in it, because China believes that to address the global issue, like climate change, like biodiversity, the international governance, it’s a very important component of the international public goods. And the performance of providing such public goods is the measuring stakes of their responsibilities. But even saying that, we can see China pledge $6 billion for South-South Co-operation Fund and last year, China first time their overseas investment on solar PV, on wind, on hydropower was more than half of their overseas overall energy investment and it’s exceeded of those of fossil fuels. And on top of this, this year China declared shift to their overseas coal investment.
So, like many times in last century, the world, again, once again, at the crossroads for the biodiversity. So, glose wise – global-wise, the IT targets, none of the 20 action targets have been fully achieved and for climate change, we are – the targets of the Paris Agreement is received with every delay. So, now it’s time for China, the US, the EU, the UK and any – many other major economies strive to build and lead a new pattern of the geopolitics, which it’s free of conflict and it’s the greater co-operation in the place, with mutual respect and, also win-win to be gained. Thank you [applause].
Professor Tim Benton
So, thank you very much. It’s really astonishing the kind of, the skills and the depth and the enthusiasm of our team in the Environment and Society Programme and it’s just great to have a all-female, apologies for me, all-female panel up here to showcase. But we have five or six minutes to answer any questions, if anybody from the floor has questions, or anybody remotely who would like to pose a question, generically, about the sort of subjects that we have been covering. If no-one – oh, we have a question over here. So, the boom mic is above you. No, no, just leave it here. Take your mask off and – great, thank you very much.
Member
Hi. So, first of all, I just want to say thank you so much for leading us in this conversation. It’s super-important. I had a question about something that I think you brought up, Anne – Miss Anna, and you mentioned something about how global warming saw a major boom after the Industrial Revolution. That first actual major change to our greenhouse gases actually occurred through colonialism of the Americas, through global cooling and the genocide of the indigenous populations through colonialism and its efforts. And that – those resources that were taken from these countries were then used to fuel the Industrial Revolution, right? And then, as you mentioned, these richer countries, right, we have an obligation to move forward and we have the means, right, to now – and the money to invest in more eco-friendly solutions, while countries that have more low-income populations will have a harder time. But many of these countries that you’re talking about that are lower income are countries that were ravaged by colonialism, and I would even dare to say the majority of these countries are your low-income.
And so, I guess my question to you would be, how can we, as countries in the West, the richer countries, support decolonisation in a way that would be eco-friendly and how can we work together as, sort of, a reparations aspect towards these countries that we almost have a moral obligation to support, and as well as to the world, right, to save us? And so, that’s my question.
Member
Excellent.
Professor Tim Benton
Thank you very much, a very interesting question. Anna, do you want to…?
Anna Åberg
Big question.
Professor Tim Benton
It was asked to you.
Anna Åberg
No, thank you, and you raise very important points. This is something that the whole world is going to need to do together, to ensure that not just richer countries transition, it needs to be a joint effort. So, I don’t think I have a perfect answer to your question. I would appreciate your thoughts. But I will need to work with different levers, financial levers, technology transfer and wider fiscal challenges, as well, to ensure that all countries are able to grow their economies, develop, but do it in a greener way and to also deal with the climate change impacts that are here. And, yeah, I don’t feel like I gave you a great answer there, but I would be very interested in hearing your thoughts.
Professor Tim Benton
But what signal is it sending that after years of pledging 100 billion from the rich world, we are still not at 100 billion with two weeks to go to COP? Where is the kind of, fair share? I mean, if you do a proportionate GDP accounting, although America has doubled and doubled, it is still only 20% of what would be a, kind of, fair share, from an economic perspective. So, where is the momentum going to come for the necessary transference of finance and are you hopeful that COP will deliver anything close to…?
Anna Åberg
No, it’s not okay. This pledge was made more than a decade ago. It’s not a lot of money, especially when you compare it to the vast amounts that have been, well, injected into Western economies to, kind of, stay afloat from COVID. And it’s not at all commensurate with the financial needs in developing countries, either. So, I don’t know. I don’t know how you feel, but it feels a bit like developed countries are waking up and feeling like, “Oh, it’s soon COP26, we need to be able to, you know, deliver this.” And now there’s a lot of pledging going on, which is very good, but I think it will be important that we exceed this target in years to come to make up for the initial shortfall last year. It should’ve been achieved last year. And that we also address issues related to the quality or the composition of finance, to make sure that it’s easier for governments all over the world to access these funds, once we – yeah, sorry, I’ll stop there. I could just talk about this for…
Professor Tim Benton
Right, yeah, thank you.
Anna Åberg
…days.
Professor Tim Benton
Yeah, and it was a difficult question to answer, because it’s a very complex situation. One more question that we have here and then I think that’s probably it. And we ought to re-run this, because there’s obviously a lot of scope for discussion.
Hilde Rapp
Do you want me to stand up? No.
Professor Tim Benton
No, you’ll bang your head.
Hilde Rapp
I’m Hilde and I have been a bit of a, sort of, nuisance to you all by sending you all sorts of things from the UN and one thing and another. So, I’d like to follow that up a bit afterwards. But just now, you’ve, all three, mentioned that it’s so vital to combine thinking about biodiversity, climate change and to an extent, governance and that all of them together, obviously, deeply constitute, I suppose, the conditions for security. And a sister institute, the Institute for Economics and Peace, recently had a meeting where there was a real, kind of, push to say “We must, really, kind of, link academics and constituencies and interest groups and governments along this, kind of – you know, combining the dots and closing the loop between those three issues.”
And there’s a fourth one, which I know is also very dear to Chatham House, which you didn’t mention, although it’s implied in everything, and that’s the issue of the circular economy, which has huge implications for the whole notion of development and our, kind of, obsession with growth. And I’m sure that that needs to be woven into the story in a very, kind of, clear and obvious way and I’d be very interested to help with that, too.
But also, I wanted to say, if I may, Sir David, my children have all grown up with your documentaries and not one could be missed, so it was a complete wonderful, kind of, way to help them learn, you know, what’s important in the world, and I want to thank you from my heart for having been such a continuous inspiration to me and my children. Thank you.
Sir David Attenborough
Thank you very much.
Professor Tim Benton
Thank you, indeed [applause]. We won’t not tackle your question, but just let me reassure you that circular economy is very much central to things that we’re doing, as well as thinking about, you know, the role of economic growth in terms of sustainability transition. But I think, given the time, let me just say thank you fanta – to a fantastic panel from the ESP group. And we will clear the stage and on the screens on either side, you’re going to be shown the staff videos about why we, as a staff group, think Sir David is the perfect recipient for the Centenary Award. So, thanks to the panel, thanks to you for your attention, and over to the staff [applause].
Chatham House Staff
[Music] I remember watching his nature programmes with my family as a child and he would just take us to these other worlds and he put across the messaging on the climate crisis so accessibly and effectively, and he’s just such a big name to everyone that I know.
Chatham House Staff
I voted for Sir David Attenborough, particularly for this capacity for storytelling around climate change and around biodiversity. And I know that I’m hugely inspired personally, but I think I can speak on behalf of many more of my colleagues, when I say that I would love to learn from his ability to speak across generations, across backgrounds, levels of influence, policymaking, civil society, not only with evidence, scientific evidence, but also with solutions. And with a hope that, in your own words, Sir David Attenborough, “If given the chance, nature can bounce back.”
Chatham House Staff
Thank you for all your hard work, determination and spirit in advocating to make the world a better place, not just for us, but for future generations of every living thing on the planet. Most importantly, you brought the natural wonders of the world right into our living room, making the most fascinating plant and animal species accessible to all and, in turn, making us more conscious of our impact on the natural world. We thank you for all your work and all your hard efforts.
Chatham House Staff
Thanks to David Attenborough’s incredibly contagious fascination with nature. I think there’s millions out there, together with me, who will never lose the fascination for wildlife and nature, throughout their lives, and do whatever they can to protect it.
Chatham House Staff
Over the last 50 years of broadcasting, you’ve built up such an amazing legacy and your voice is the voice of nature programming. And your knowledge and your enthusiasm and passion has shone through in every single programme that you’ve made.
Chatham House Staff
Thanks for being so inspiring. Your documentaries were the only TV I was allowed to watch as a kid and I work in the Environment and Society Programme at Chatham House, and you’ve played a big part in that.
Courtney Rice
My name is Courtney Rice, and this is my brother, Jordan and his son, Orlando. I voted for Sir David Attenborough because I believe that no other public figure has done more to educate the world about the goods of nature. He continues to inspire each of us to explore, enjoy, and most importantly, protect nature, for future generations.
Chatham House Staff
Thank you for being an inspiration to all of us. I have grown up watching your documentaries back home in Argentina, and all I can say is that the impact of your work, especially in the climate crisis, has been measurable worldwide. So, for that we thank you and that’s the reason why I voted for you.
Dr Helen Harwatt
Thank you for giving a platform to the natural world and particularly, the non-human animals we share the planet with. And, also, recently, for highlighting the crucial role of food system transformation and diet change in achieving a sustainable future.
Chatham House Staff
I’ve given my vote to David Attenborough for the Centenary Lifetime Awards because he has been a great inspiration for me and influenced my decision to pursue environmental studies. Especially his Blue Planet II documentary has been a great support for our work to tackle marine plastics pollution, one of the main issues of our time. Thank you very much for your great work and inspiration.
Chatham House Staff
I voted for David Attenborough for this prize because there is no-one whose work fills me with the same amount of wonder, and inspiration, and respect and admiration for the outside world. It makes me want to go out and connect with it.
Chatham House Staff
The reason that I voted for you to be the Chatham House Lifetime Achievement Award winner is that I remember growing up and watching Blue Planet. As you came up on that boat next to a blue whale and screamed out loud, “It’s a blue whale,” it inspired me and it made me see the world through your eyes. And that is your legacy in showing us the world through your experiences and learning to respect, love, and take care for it.
Chatham House Staff
I voted for David Attenborough because of his unparalleled body of work over decades that has encouraged millions of people to understand the natural world, the interconnection between us and its fragility. Thank you very much indeed, Sir David.
All
Thank you [music] [applause].
Dr Helen Harwatt
Thank you, everybody, for your attention during our panel, and we’ve now come to the pinnacle of our event this evening. And you’ve just heard there why we voted for Sir David for this Centenary Award, and I’d just like to add my additional thanks to Sir David for his continued championing of science and evidence and particularly evolution. Congratulations, Sir David, on a spectacular life and legacy [applause].
Sir David Attenborough
Thank you very much, indeed [applause]. Thank you [applause]. Thank you [applause]. Thank you very much [applause]. Thank you [applause]. Thank you [applause]. This is a very remarkable institution, really quite extraordinary. It was founded, as you all know, in the wake of the First World War, 1919/1920, and it was aimed at studying international relationships, seeing what went wrong that produced the Great War. Those problems have not been solved, but at least they’re being studied, and have been studied here.
But the problems that face us now are not only unparalleled in their severity, they are also unique and from two points of view, which could give us all some hope. The first of these is that in the past, up until really right now, international relationships have been dominated by argument, by people with one point of view disagreeing with people with another point of view. But now there is a difference.
Now, the major problems that face the nations of the world are the same for all nations. The world is being destroyed. We are doing it, there’s no doubt about that, so that for the first time, the nations of the world should not be arguing with one another. On the contrary, they should be standing shoulder-to shoulder to find – identify what the problems are and find the solutions, because it’s in all the nations’ advantage that we should see these clearly and agree to take action in a unified way. That is an extraordinary change. “Nations shall be – speak peace unto nations,” said the Bible, but it wasn’t until now that all the nations spoke with one voice on that issue. That is a huge plus and one reason for hope.
There is a second reason and that’s to do with the way in which humanity communicates with itself. For the first time, it is possible for people to speak today and be heard within minutes across the world. This is not just television, though it happens to be what I’m involved in, it’s about the whole change of communications between the people of the world. For the first time, it is possible for them to see the dimensions of the problem, to see the pictures of devastation or of hope. For the first time, people around the world will be – hear the arguments as to what we should do, the analyses of what the problems are and what the solutions are.
Those two things bring me some hope, and within two or three weeks’ time, the nations of the world, the haves, as well as the have-nots, will be getting together with the same object in view, to solve the disasters that we are inflicting upon this planet. That’s a marvellous situation to be in, because it’s the first time that it seems there will be a possibility in which we can all agree what the problems are and what the solutions are. And the most powerful dynamic that should force those people in Glasgow in three weeks’ time is that it is young people who see this. It is their future, they know – understand now what the problems were – are worldwide. And if the programmes, as you’ve kindly been saying there, that I have made with, I may say, great teams of Cameramen and Directors and Recordists, if those programmes have helped to spread the information on which people will take decisions, then this award is a great honour, and I shall feel at least I’ve gone some way to deserving that compliment. It is a great honour to accept this award and I do so with my profound thanks to you all. Thank you [applause].
Dr Robin Niblett CMG
Oh, glasses coming off with the mask. Sir David, thank you so much for being with us today, for an incredibly impassioned speech. I think we’re recording it, so I think that one will go up in its entirety. And actually, for somebody who has spent his life, as you said, “toiling in the fields of nature around the world,” to have captured two of the really interesting dynamics and powerful dynamics that are changing international affairs today, and to have looped them into the kind of change that you hope to see. And I was so impressed by our colleagues at Chatham House, who, you know, as bad as things are, focused on the hope each time, “What could we do? What can we do? What can we do?”
And Sir David, that’s what you’ve always inspired us with, it is possible if we step up. And the way you captured those two dynamics of communications, a sense of common mission, it’s going to be tough. Geopolitics and humans have a habit of not agreeing when they should, and we spend a lot of our time dealing with that dynamic at Chatham House. But I, like you, I feel the power of that demand from the ground up, that you described, for a different type of future.
So, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for coming, for being with us today for this very special evening. An award by our staff, you heard their voices today. You could see the passion that drove them in the decision they made to award you, Sir David, this Lifetime Centenary Award of Chatham House. We’re only going to do it once, so there’ll only be one first Centenary Lifetime Award. You’ve got it; doesn’t get repeated. So – but I can’t think of anyone better, I really can’t. So proud of my colleagues at Chatham House for making the call, and they’ve decided, and we listened, and you got the award.
So, thank you so much for coming, for everyone online, as well, for joining us, all our members and other guests. Please stay in your seats, so Sir David can head off to the next thing, but please, again, our appreciation. Thank you very much, Sir David [applause].
Sir David Attenborough
Thank you very much [applause]. Thank you [applause]. Thank you very much [applause].
