Creatively United for the Planet | US Election Results: The Impact on Canadians @creativelyunited | Uploaded November 2020 | Updated October 2024, 17 hours ago.
Leading US political commentator and Washington DC lawyer, Mace Rosenstein, returns to distill the US election results. Mace will be joined by Tom Axworthy, a senior policy advisor to the Canadian Federal government, and Bob Sandford, Global Water Futures Chair in Water and Climate Security at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health.
Presentation Summary Points
by Jonathan O'Riordan
A couple of weeks ago I offered a stark choice between a Biden and a Trump Presidency in terms of carbon reduction targets and protecting biodiversity.
That differential still to some extent exists but it will be modified over the next four years because of changes in demographics and following the money.
The Pew Research noted that 88% of Republican voters ( not Democratic) under 40 supported expansion of solar power in the States and 80% supported the expansion of wind turbines. Youth will increasingly influence voting patterns over the coming decade.
When Trump was elected in 2016 US coal produced twice as much electricity as renewables but this year for the first time ever, renewables will produce as much power as diminishing coal sources.
Investors are taking note. Since the start of 2020, investment in the S&P Global Clean Energy Index has climbed by 70%
Globally renewables are now cheaper than fossil fuel alternatives. Major oil firms are investing in renewables to hedge their bets for a shift from fossil to renewables.
As mentioned a couple of weeks ago the EU, China, Canada and potentially the US under a Biden Administration will embrace carbon neutrality by 2050. Indeed China today condemned the US for withdrawing from the UN Paris Agreement.
All is definitely not lost. The Countdown to the UN Climate Conference in November 2021 will witness an unprecedented engagement in creative solutions both from the top down and at the community level from the bottom up.
The pandemic has had a lasting effect on behaviour especially travel, transportation, office protocols and sharing empathy.
Nature will continue to pound away with increasingly severe weather reminding us all to live within her limits
Regardless of the final results from the US election, this next year and the coming decade will be a golden age for transformation towards living within planetary boundaries and tackling the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
--
Mace Rosenstein has been advising media and telecommunications companies on complex strategic, policy, legal, and regulatory matters for nearly 30 years. He has deep experience structuring and securing regulatory approvals for broadcast and telecommunications transactions. He is also a leader in the field on federal law and policy regarding foreign investment in U.S. media companies and on the FCC’s complex rules governing multiple and cross-ownership of media and telecommunications properties.
Tom Axworthy has had a distinguished career in government, academia, and philanthropy. He served as the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and he was a key strategist on repatriation of the Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In 2011 he was appointed Secretary-General of the InterAction Council, a think tank of former world leaders. Established in 1983, the InterAction Council was the first group to apply the wisdom and network of former leaders to current global issues. He is the author of numerous books and articles of which the best known is Towards a Just Society, co-authored with Pierre Trudeau.
Bob Sandford holds the Global Water Futures Chair in Water and Climate Security at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health. In this capacity Bob was the co-author of the UN Water in the World We Want report on post-2015 global sustainable development goals relating to water. He is also lead author of Canada in the Global World, a new United Nations expert report examining the capacity of Canada’s water sector to meet and help others meet the United Nations 2030 Transforming Our World water-related Sustainable Development Goals.
Leading US political commentator and Washington DC lawyer, Mace Rosenstein, returns to distill the US election results. Mace will be joined by Tom Axworthy, a senior policy advisor to the Canadian Federal government, and Bob Sandford, Global Water Futures Chair in Water and Climate Security at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health.
Presentation Summary Points
by Jonathan O'Riordan
A couple of weeks ago I offered a stark choice between a Biden and a Trump Presidency in terms of carbon reduction targets and protecting biodiversity.
That differential still to some extent exists but it will be modified over the next four years because of changes in demographics and following the money.
The Pew Research noted that 88% of Republican voters ( not Democratic) under 40 supported expansion of solar power in the States and 80% supported the expansion of wind turbines. Youth will increasingly influence voting patterns over the coming decade.
When Trump was elected in 2016 US coal produced twice as much electricity as renewables but this year for the first time ever, renewables will produce as much power as diminishing coal sources.
Investors are taking note. Since the start of 2020, investment in the S&P Global Clean Energy Index has climbed by 70%
Globally renewables are now cheaper than fossil fuel alternatives. Major oil firms are investing in renewables to hedge their bets for a shift from fossil to renewables.
As mentioned a couple of weeks ago the EU, China, Canada and potentially the US under a Biden Administration will embrace carbon neutrality by 2050. Indeed China today condemned the US for withdrawing from the UN Paris Agreement.
All is definitely not lost. The Countdown to the UN Climate Conference in November 2021 will witness an unprecedented engagement in creative solutions both from the top down and at the community level from the bottom up.
The pandemic has had a lasting effect on behaviour especially travel, transportation, office protocols and sharing empathy.
Nature will continue to pound away with increasingly severe weather reminding us all to live within her limits
Regardless of the final results from the US election, this next year and the coming decade will be a golden age for transformation towards living within planetary boundaries and tackling the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
--
Mace Rosenstein has been advising media and telecommunications companies on complex strategic, policy, legal, and regulatory matters for nearly 30 years. He has deep experience structuring and securing regulatory approvals for broadcast and telecommunications transactions. He is also a leader in the field on federal law and policy regarding foreign investment in U.S. media companies and on the FCC’s complex rules governing multiple and cross-ownership of media and telecommunications properties.
Tom Axworthy has had a distinguished career in government, academia, and philanthropy. He served as the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and he was a key strategist on repatriation of the Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In 2011 he was appointed Secretary-General of the InterAction Council, a think tank of former world leaders. Established in 1983, the InterAction Council was the first group to apply the wisdom and network of former leaders to current global issues. He is the author of numerous books and articles of which the best known is Towards a Just Society, co-authored with Pierre Trudeau.
Bob Sandford holds the Global Water Futures Chair in Water and Climate Security at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health. In this capacity Bob was the co-author of the UN Water in the World We Want report on post-2015 global sustainable development goals relating to water. He is also lead author of Canada in the Global World, a new United Nations expert report examining the capacity of Canada’s water sector to meet and help others meet the United Nations 2030 Transforming Our World water-related Sustainable Development Goals.
