 Rwy'n dechrau'n meddwl, ond ymddangos eich bai'r ysgol. Rwy'n dechrau, arddangos. Rwy'n dechrau'n meddwl. Rwy'n dechrau, erig, ystod yma'r Cymru yng Nghymru. Rwy'n dechrau'n meddwl i'r wneud ychydig yw mynd i ysgrifennu ymddangos er mwyn i fynd i gael. Rwy'n dechrau'n meddwl i'r ysgol. Dwi'n ddigon i'n ddigon, ac mae'n gwybod i'r gweithio ar y ddechrau. Can we change the world? Should we change the world? And of course, yes, we shall. How do we do it? The greatest, one of the greatest humans who ever walked this planet, Mahatma Gandhi, once said, the difference between what humans are actually doing and what we are capable of doing is more than sufficient to do the change. We are in many ways on the wrong tracks and many ways also on the right tracks, but for sure we can transform this world, we can change. There is not a slightest doubt about it. Last week I was in Beijing. In Beijing there is a company called Mo Bike, a bicycle sharing company. The company didn't exist as late as two years back. It was started in April last year in Shanghai. The starting capital was 40,000 US dollars. Now, one and a half years later, it's valued at three billion US dollars. What has happened in the meantime? Well, they had an idea so great with such an uptake from people that it really spread like that. There are now two million bikes for share just in the city of Beijing. 160 Chinese cities has taken that bike sharing and it's spreading rapidly like wildfire to Singapore, to Japan and for sure it will come to the United States and to Europe. The biggest Chinese companies of Mo Bike are now investing at least at the west coast of the United States of America. This is happening so fast because the demand, the readiness for change is there out with people and then the business comes with a business opportunity. It really takes off. It's not just that. China is now 65% of all high-speed rail in the world. Every Chinese city, more than half a million people, will very soon be connected to this high-speed rail. It is a network which would have covered the entire United States of America if you have been daring enough great American friends to do something similar to that. You would have been able to go from here to San Francisco in less than 24 hours if you had the Chinese high-speed rails. Very soon you will be able to go from in the Mongolia and the absolute north of China to Singapore in Southeast Asia in less than 20 hours by train. Think of what that means for people's connectivity, for tourism and of course for the transport of goods moving them into rail. First time I visited Beijing, there was one metro line in the entire city of Beijing. Now Beijing is the biggest metro network in the world. Shanghai is the second biggest. Very soon Beijing will have 18 million customers on metro every single day. Beat that again, America. And 10, 15 years back there was hardly any city in China with all these two big cities with metro. Now there are 30 cities in China with functioning metro lines. Again, hard to compete with this, but it shows the capacity of humans to change how fast the change can happen. We can share bikes, we can do metros and for sure we can do electric mobility in all the big cities of the world. We are rapidly changing into that. In this area, my nation, Norway, may be a kind of frontrunner because we made some slight changes in the tax system, some slight changes in the ability of electrical cars to move in the cities. And in the last month, there were more than one-third of all cars bought in Norway with electrical vehicles. So it can happen. It's not the slightest doubt. Let's forget that the change is impossible, which we saw often here, if it can happen in Norway, it can happen in China. It happens everywhere. I was visiting Saudi Arabia the other day. I thought I would come to a nation where people were stuck with the oil. To the country, everyone spoke about how Saudi Arabia need to change. To go from a completely oil-based economy into a renewable economy with solar and wind and all the enormous opportunities to use the revenue from oil for the transformation of the Saudi economy. So change is happening. Basically, economic wise, we are on the right track that we need to speed up because the challenges are so big. The train has left the station. The direction is the right one, but speed is too low. That's what we need to change. Quite often people speaking as if change is not possible. Let's remind ourselves that, as humans, we have solved the biggest of issues. Historically, we have solved much bigger issues than those facing us today. 200 years back, every single person, more or less on planet Earth, thought slavery was completely normal. Christian priests said this is ingrained in the Bible. Muslim mullahs said this is in the Quran, and nearly every economist in the world said the British empire will go down and under without slaves. Then a few young people in London raised their hands, asked themselves, can this really be right that we need to enslave ourselves or enslave others on this planet? Then, of course, there started a movement which ended up with Lincoln in the United States of America, that basically ended up with crushing slavery all over the planet. Not to say that there are no people living in slave-like conditions on the planet. There still is. But there is nothing like TV channels, newspaper outlets, state leaders who propagate slavery and say that is completely normal. The issue has taken a completely new turn, and as a theoretical concept is basically resolved. Or take the civil rights movement in the United States of America. In 1960s it was completely normal to have segregated schools, segregated buses, everything segregated. And now the United States of America has one black president, two black Republican foreign ministers. It's a completely different place. Again, not to say that there is still no discrimination of blacks in the United States, there is. But it's a completely different place from what John Lewis and Martin Luther King experienced in Alabama, Mississippi, 50 years back. Change is possible. How can change happen? I believe that the theory of change was delivered by a great American, Barack Obama. I listened to him a few months back, and he said, My two young daughters, correct me if I'm wrong, I think the names of Sasha and Malia do not understand the concept of acid rain. When I speak about acid rain, Barack Obama said, the closer eyes are not interested, it's not their word. Why is that? Because the problem is gone. There is no acid rain any longer in the United States of America. And that change happened because of a few factors which I will deliver upon because citizens demanded action because politicians took the lead and regulated markets and set a vision for society and because business delivered the technical solutions to the problems. That's basically what we need to envisage for all our forward looking problems for the problems we will face from here to 2050. Business, technical solution, citizens demanding action, political leaders making the vision. What we of course need to do is to bring everything into one basic political one basic political track. You are aware of the 17 sustainable development goals. I mean a Mohammed spoke about it at this video screen very recently. And of course you all remember all the 17 sustainable development goals. Is there anyone who can remember all those who is not employed by the United Nations? I guess not, but don't don't worry. Basically they come down to two people and planet. People providing education, health, bringing everyone out of poverty, really putting people front and center in our efforts. And secondly, I have a great friend from protecting the rainforest of Brazil, so good to see you. People, the other is planet protecting the rainforest of Brazil, the great Pacific Oceans, the mountains of Himalaya, or for that matter, the fantastic landscapes of the United States of America, protecting people and planet bringing these together. In the past, there was mainly the idea that first you need to develop and get rich and take care of people. When they have done that, you move on to environment and protect the environment. That's the thing of the past. The beauty now is that we can bring together, protecting people and planet into one work stream. And that's of course what the sustainable development goals is all about. And it's possible mainly because the price of so many of the technologies we need for protecting the environment are now come down to a level where it can be used by everyone, even the poorest nation on the planet. Only five years back, solar energy was so much more costly than coal. That it was very, very hard to finger point to a nation who decided to go for coal because they couldn't afford to go solar. But now solar is done at a price they can compete with coal. And when you then look into all the other added benefits, solar, well, how many windows you need to clean if you go solar? How many patients you need to treat for cancer? Or for strokes or for us, my inner hospitals if you go solar? There is enormous, huge environment and health benefits for going solar. And added the prices now the same. Nearly everywhere in the world, new investment in solar comes to the same price as coal. So the reason for going to coal, going brown, is gone. That's why you see, for instance, in India, which by the way next to China is where we see the biggest changes in the world today, great positive changes, is because Prime Minister Modi realised that he can electrify the villages, he can provide any number of green jobs, he can provide high economic growth, he can take care of his people and take care of the planet by the same policies. Southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh now have 11% economic growth close to the highest in the entire world. And they are doing it, by the way, with tree planting, with solar energy, with wind energy, with transforming the agriculture into a green one, simply by going green and developing and providing prosperity by the same policy. So we need one political framework, sustainable development goals, people and planet coming together and for the first time, and that's the good news in human history that can happen. And then we need to apply Barack Obama's scheme for how to change the world. Adding to these three, citizens, business and political leadership, of course we need a global thinking. We need to think we are in these together. I believe the most important word in the world today is the word together. If the United States works with China, China works with India, India works with Europe, we all work together, we can achieve everything. There is not one problem so big that we humans cannot face it and resolve it. If we listen to those political leaders who say we can do everything on our own, I'm sufficiently happy to be in this nation, I don't need to take care of my neighbours, we will fail. Even the smallest problem will not be resolved if we stick to this myself and my nation alone attitude. We need reforms of the UN system. I'm very happy to see the President of the United States today speaking about the need for a much stronger UN. He said the promise of the United Nations is big, what a fantastic positive message and for that reason, the United Nations need to reform itself and be less bureaucratic. Exactly, I couldn't have said it better. We need the United Nations, we need to be together, but we need to reform ourselves and be less bureaucratic, more effective. But the word together is absolutely central. That's also why I started with China in the United States because I give nothing for those Americans who are running around the world just finding problems with China. As I give nothing for those Chinese who believe that United States and America are behind every problem in the world. Neither is true, these are two great nations. China is now moving to a green development at a speed no one in human history has done fantastic progress, but as much as we need China, we also need the United States and for sure India, Brazil and so many others, we are in it together. Then we need visionary leadership. We see that in some nations and frankly those nations who have had good, stable, positive leadership over decades are the most successful in the world. Look to Germany, where the two main parties, the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats, have been able with the differences to come together to provide great leaders for that nation. Chancellor Merkel will in all certainty be re-elected in the election at the next Sunday. Germany is probably the most successful nation on the planet when it comes to taking care of the environment. Not perfect, but have done more than nearly everyone else. By the way, it has turned that into a business opportunity creating any number of jobs when Chancellor Merkel goes abroad. The interest is now with the environment technology of Germany. They developed the environment technology of Germany because they protected the Rhine and the forest and the air in the cities and through that process they developed technology which is now providing any number of jobs for the German industry. So stable visionary leadership over time is very, very important and we see that in nation after nation, political leaders need to frame the market. Then we need citizens. Everywhere in the world politicians become lazy. If they are not pushed by the citizens, the issue that Barack Obama brought up as he drained, it would never have been resolved if it was not for the pressure of citizens. Look to the Montreal Protocol, probably the most successful international treaty of any sort. It has reduced the number of skin cancer cases on the planet by two million every year. That's many happy mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers. It came because people said we want to be protected and we demand from our political leaders to be protected against the hole in those on there. And then a conservative American president called Ronald Reagan started to act. And an even more conservative British Prime Minister called Margaret Thatcher started to act. So the pressure from people is adamant and please work in civil society organisations through media, through social media, through every platform to put that pressure on business and politics. And finally, we need business. There is no way governments will be able to make all the technologies we need. And they are able to decouple. We can decouple environment degradation from economic development and human well-being. Some people challenge that view. Well, I offer my own nation, Norway as an example, but I could as well offer United States of America or Germany or many other developed nations. There has basically been a full decoupling between economic growth and pollution, except for the climate issue, which we still have not resolved. In Norway, in my lifetime, there has been enormous economic growth. And pollution is much less than it was, for instance, when I got my first children. Much less. Protection of nature is also much better. So it's possible to have huge economic growth and reduce pollution in nearly all areas at the same time. We just need to do the same trick with the climate pollutants, the CO2 and the others. And that's because business make the business solution. They make money, the mo-bikes in China, the technology to reduce pollution everywhere, basically done by business. So to sum up, we are now facing some very new, real, big issues on the planet and we need to face them together with business, with civil society movements and with political leadership. And one of the biggest we really need to resolve up to 2050 is pollution. Pollution is now the biggest killer of humans. That is also because you have been so successful, because we have reduced all the traditional killers, smallpox, polio, malaria. You name them all. They are either completely eradicated or reduced to a level which we could never comprehend in history. First time I went to India, there were hundreds of thousands of polio cases in India alone. Last year, not one, zero. Malaria has come down 70% in Africa since 2000, which is a very, very short period of time. South Korean women can now expect to live on average to the age of 90. I mean, historically it was completely, completely unthinkable. 200 years back, life expectancy in the most advanced nations on planet United Kingdom was less than 40, and now it's 90 in South Korea and for sure it will pass 100 in the next decades. So life expectancy is fantastically increasing, and that's mainly because of our success in defeating transmittable diseases. But when we do that, new issues come forward and pollution is now the biggest killer of humans. Not my words, then I would encourage you to be a little bit skeptical, but this is the world of world health organization, the biggest authority in the world on this matter. They said one fourth of all death on planet can be attributed to pollution because people are not dying directly from pollution, but they are dying from cancer, from heart attacks, from asthma, from respiratory diseases, from any number of other health problems coming from pollution or amplified by pollution. New environment has set a target. We will manage to make a pollution free planet, set a big, hairy animal that ambition out there to really move in that direction with government, citizens and business and is realistic. We can change. Adding to that, we need to protect the planet better. We need to protect the species, the beauty of the planet, fantastic, fantastic ecosystems of all sorts, and we are not really doing well. We have many spectacular success stories in Rwanda. They protect the gorillas in China, they protect the pandas, the snow leopards in the Himalayas just was moved from in the endangials to just vulnerable species or any number of success stories. But at the end, we are not doing well. Elephants, rhinos, the ecosystems of different sorts are coming down. We don't get enough living space from other creatures, from the animals for the plants on this planet. That must stop, and again, it can be done. Those number of governments and nations have showed the way, so let's just copy the success stories. Brazil has been one of such success stories. There are some difficult developments in Brazil at the moment, but over the last 10, 15 years, Brazil has been an amazing success story in protecting the Amazon and the ecosystems of this great nation, the biggest mega diversity by diversity nation in the world. But we have solved bigger problems in the past. For sure, we can resolve the issues of protecting the planet and the species. For sure, we can reduce pollution, just a matter of getting the politics right and mobilize the citizens for these great endeavour. Finally, there is a structural problem which we need to fix. That's the problem of modern capitalism. It can be put in this way. The profit of destroying the nature or polluting the planet is nearly always privatized. While the costs of polluting the planet or the cost of destroying the ecosystems is nearly always socialized. Meaning that I can make a profit from destroying something, my personal profit, but the costs are put to you. To the taxpayers of the United States of America, to the next generation of Americans or world citizens, or to other nations on the planet. That cannot continue. We cannot allow the continuous system where the profits are privatized while the costs are socialized. So anyone who pollutes, anyone who destroys nature, must pay the cost for that destruction or that pollution, must be integrated in the price. That's the polluted price principle. Set the centre of any environment economics. I will need to move ahead in that direction. I started with Gandhi. We can change the world because the difference between what we do and what we can do is sufficient. Gandhi also said, maybe even more famously, he said, the planet has more than enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed. Thank you so much. Thank you. Have a seat. How upbeat today. I tend to be all the time because I believe one of the biggest mistakes of environment lists is the view that so many people put forward, that the world is a horrible place on the way to hell, and we need to make people aware of all these problems, and people want to be able to do something with the problems. So that positive message of what we can do is much more important than the negative message of what we cannot do. So, Johnnick Stonic Boone said, very inspiring message from Eric Solheim, exclamation mark. So that worked. I am wondering if you are... Obviously you're good at talking the talk, but do you walk the talk? Tell me everything in your home life that is sustainable and fitting your extremely important job title. Not everything. Pick a few things. Well, I'm not a big meat eater, but I do not believe in running around, finger pointing to others. But I believe in that, of course, not all humans can have the same amount of meat as Americans, or for that matter, Chinese, which are now very rapidly coming up to the American level of meat eating. I need to eat a little bit less, and on that matter, I'm doing well. Where I'm not doing well is of course by going by air. I mean, last week I was in China, Tuna Robe in between, and coming here the week before I was in Japan, week before that I was in Vietnam. So there's a lot of travels which turn air miles. Recycling? What do you recycle? We have a huge, huge problem in Canada where we are living, because you can of course recycle in your home, but there's no systems. However, what we are really doing well is that I introduced a complete ban on plastic bags and one used plastic. So when you get to Tuna Robe airport you're not even allowed to bring plastic bags into Canada, you need to put them into the dustbin at the airport. And in principle, you can get a number of months in prison if you carry the plastic bags. Goodness. What difference do you think that will make, that one ban? I think if successful, I think it will make a huge, huge difference, because the plastic pollution is so absolutely horrendous. We are on the track to having the same weight of plastic in the oceans as the weight of fish. By 2050 we don't change, we will change, we need to change. And Canada is taking the lead without other nations that change. You see, plastic bags all over the, even into the national parks, in the nature at the beach, we must get stopped. All right, so you liken the idea of global citizens changing their approach to our environment as to we, for the most part, don't have slavery anymore in the world. And that was a big attitude change. It took 200 years. Are you saying that this process where we become more aware of our environment could take up to 200 years, maybe longer? Every development takes much less time now because the spread of ideas, the spread of technology in the world is at a speed no one thought possible. I mean, I'm in the past, I just mentioned this example of this more bike. I mean, two years back it didn't even exist. Now that 25 million bikes in China shared every single day and the speed is so phenomenal. So we can change things in a much, much faster speed than in the past because ideas travel faster, technology travels faster, our ability to change. Basically, it's a kind of competition because on one hand, of course, our problems are increasing. I mean, look to the hurricanes. Extreme weather is much more extreme than it was. And we see more and more extreme weather events. On the other hand, of course, the ability of humans to cope with this is much better. Not many people died in the United States of America in the hurricanes. And even if we look to say South Asia, which has had huge, huge problems, still the number of people dying from these events are much less than in the past. So more violent, but less deadly. But of course, then comes the crazy idea which I heard from some politicians in the United States that you should not discuss climate change in the midst of hurricanes. I was that you should not discuss terrorism in the midst of terrorist attacks. Let me introduce this to you from Sarah Cummings. What is the most encouraging about the SDG progress to date? Still quite a way to go. If you ask what is the most encouraging is on health, because the progress the world has done on health in the last decades is astonishing. I mean, think of the fact that when I was born, it's nothing to do with me, but when I was born, life expectancy on the planet was 46. Now life expectancy is on average 71. I mentioned South Korea very close to nine close to 90. But in China, it's rapidly, which is of course a huge depopulated nation. And at the end of the day, we are doing it for ourselves because this is sound good business for Walmart to go green. And that's why I'm so optimistic that we see this shift because big business is not doing this as an altruistic thing. I mean, they may also want to do good to the world. But they're doing it because it's sound business. There are five times more jobs in the United States in solar in California on the western part than there is in the coal industry of West Virginia or Kentucky. So Eric Solheim, you fly so much. I can only imagine that this week you will be cycling around the United Nations as tenants. Thank you for your positivity. It's refreshing. Thank you for being with us.