Christiana Figueres

Christiana Figueres

Christiana Figueres (Costa Rica, 7 August 1956) is a Costa Rican citizen and was the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 2010 - 2016.

Kutipan

• "Finding strength in our pain at the individual level is what we need to do at the global level." "Menemukan kekuatan dari rasa sakit kita di tingkat individu adalah hal yang juga perlu kita lakukan di tingkat global."
• "Decarbonising the stagnant global economy is the opportunity of the century to jumpstart growth. If we invest seriously in new technology, infrastructure and transport that are climate-resilient, the economy will thrive and create millions of jobs." "Mendekarbonisasi ekonomi global yang stagnan adalah peluang abad ini untuk memulai kembali pertumbuhan. Jika kita berinvestasi secara serius pada teknologi baru, infrastruktur, dan transportasi yang tangguh terhadap perubahan iklim, ekonomi akan berkembang dan menciptakan jutaan lapangan kerja."
• "Oh my gosh, it is so helpful for my professional life, because the truths that I was learning apply to me as an individual, but also apply to everyone else collectively, and above all, applies to all levels of the system. And I honestly think that if I had not had that guidance and those teachings, I don’t know how we would ever have gotten the Paris Agreement, because it was just so fundamental." "Ya ampun, hal itu sangat membantu kehidupan profesional saya, karena kebenaran-kebenaran yang saya pelajari berlaku bagi saya sebagai individu, juga berlaku bagi semua orang secara kolektif, dan yang terpenting berlaku di semua tingkat sistem. Dan saya sungguh percaya bahwa jika saya tidak mendapatkan bimbingan dan ajaran tersebut, saya tidak tahu bagaimana Perjanjian Paris bisa tercapai, karena hal itu begitu mendasar."
• "For me, my spiritual practice is not separate from my work. It is not in parallel—it is the foundation. It allows me to be aligned, to show up with clarity, compassion and conviction." "Bagi saya, praktik spiritual tidak terpisah dari pekerjaan saya. Ia tidak berjalan sejajar—melainkan menjadi fondasinya. Hal itu memungkinkan saya untuk selaras, hadir dengan kejernihan, empati, dan keyakinan."
• "From my father, I learned stubborn optimism – the mindset that is necessary to transform the reality we’re given into the reality we want." "Dari ayah saya, saya belajar tentang optimisme yang teguh—pola pikir yang dibutuhkan untuk mengubah realitas yang kita terima menjadi realitas yang kita inginkan."
• "My grandfather was completely dependable. More than anything, he gave me love." "Kakek saya adalah sosok yang sepenuhnya dapat diandalkan. Lebih dari segalanya, ia memberi saya cinta."

A Conversation with Christiana Figueres, one of the architects of the Paris Agreement & Co-Founder of Global Optimism.

• "I was a young mother with 2 small daughters and saw that the planet I was bringing my children into was one that was already severely diminished compared to the planet I received from my parents. How can any parent want their children to inherit a planet that’s worse than the one they received? All life on this planet is interconnected and dependent on each other, and the fate of our children is therefore linked to the fate of the natural world, the flora and fauna of our planet." "Saya adalah seorang ibu muda dengan dua anak perempuan kecil, dan saya melihat bahwa planet tempat saya membawa anak-anak saya hidup sudah jauh lebih rusak dibandingkan planet yang saya terima dari orang tua saya. Bagaimana mungkin seorang orang tua ingin anak-anaknya mewarisi planet yang kondisinya lebih buruk daripada yang ia terima? Seluruh kehidupan di planet ini saling terhubung dan saling bergantung. Karena itu, masa depan anak-anak kita terkait langsung dengan masa depan alam, flora, dan fauna di planet ini."
• "We have such compelling scientific evidence, such painful experiential evidence, that I think those still denying climate change at this point are doing so out of their own vested interests. They’re not going to be convinced because it’s not in their interest to be convinced. I don’t spend my time trying to convince climate deniers… if you don’t believe in climate change, it is like telling me you don’t believe in gravity. I don’t care if you don’t believe in gravity and I don’t care if you don’t believe in climate change… both are affecting you, and there’s. nothing you can do to deny or neutralize either of them." "Kita memiliki bukti ilmiah yang sangat kuat, juga bukti pengalaman yang begitu menyakitkan. Saya pikir mereka yang masih menyangkal perubahan iklim saat ini melakukannya demi kepentingan mereka sendiri. Mereka tidak akan mau diyakinkan karena itu tidak sejalan dengan kepentingan mereka. Saya tidak menghabiskan waktu untuk meyakinkan para penyangkal perubahan iklim. Jika Anda tidak percaya pada perubahan iklim, itu sama saja seperti mengatakan kepada saya bahwa Anda tidak percaya pada gravitasi. Saya tidak peduli apakah Anda percaya pada gravitasi atau tidak, dan saya juga tidak peduli apakah Anda percaya pada perubahan iklim atau tidak, keduanya tetap memengaruhi Anda, dan tidak ada yang bisa Anda lakukan untuk menyangkal atau menetralkan keduanya."
• "The tasks at hand are pretty simple to state, but much more difficult to implement. Science tells us that over what remains of this decade, we have to cut our greenhouse gas emissions by 50%. It is a clear, quantifiable target – not just in terms of the emissions, but also in terms of a timeline. It’s achievable too but requires a reduction in emissions like we’ve never seen before (apart from the lockdowns of this year). We have the technology to get there, capital shifts are starting to take-place, and slowly we’re seeing policy movements too. It’s not as quick or as radical as we need, but it’s starting." "Tugas yang kita hadapi sebenarnya sederhana untuk diucapkan, tetapi jauh lebih sulit untuk diterapkan. Sains memberi tahu kita bahwa dalam sisa dekade ini, kita harus memangkas emisi gas rumah kaca sebesar 50%. Itu adalah target yang jelas dan terukur, baik dari sisi jumlah emisi maupun waktu. Target ini bisa dicapai, tetapi memerlukan pengurangan emisi yang belum pernah kita lihat sebelumnya, kecuali selama masa lockdown. Teknologi sudah tersedia, pergeseran modal mulai terjadi, dan kebijakan perlahan mulai bergerak. Memang belum cukup cepat atau radikal, tetapi prosesnya sudah dimulai."
• "The most powerful incentive that could be used to incentivize economies would be a universal carbon price. That would accelerate decarbonization quite dramatically. Today, you also have a growing number of organizations that are decarbonizing their products, services, manufacturing, and value chain. Decarbonising is better for their bottom-line and is also being demanded by clients and customers who are increasingly passionate about environmental and social responsibility. In what will (hopefully soon) become the post-covid world, there will be a huge expectation that corporations not only refrain from doing damage but actively move into the solutions phase, assuming their collective responsibility in bringing about the environmental solutions we so urgently need." "Insentif paling kuat untuk mendorong ekonomi menuju keberlanjutan adalah penetapan harga karbon secara universal. Itu akan mempercepat dekarbonisasi secara drastis. Kini semakin banyak organisasi yang mendekarbonisasi produk, layanan, manufaktur, dan rantai nilai mereka. Dekarbonisasi justru baik bagi keuntungan mereka dan juga dituntut oleh klien serta konsumen yang semakin peduli terhadap tanggung jawab lingkungan dan sosial. Di dunia pasca-Covid, akan ada harapan besar agar perusahaan tidak hanya berhenti merusak, tetapi juga secara aktif menjadi bagian dari solusi dan memikul tanggung jawab kolektif untuk menghadirkan solusi lingkungan yang sangat kita butuhkan."
• "It’s sad that we don’t immediately see the profound injustices embedded in climate change. It is precisely those people who have no responsibility for having caused climate change (because they don’t have, or cause, emissions) who are the most vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate. They are in highly vulnerable countries and are some of the poorest people in the world. They are often under the poverty line and bear a disproportionate impact of climate change. There is also the intergenerational injustice of climate change. Young people growing up today definitely didn’t cause climate change, yet they will feel a huge amount of the impact. The same is true of women, who often carry roles in society which make them more vulnerable to the impact of climate change yet have rarely caused it. If you view the world from a moral perspective, you have no option but to address climate change in a timely fashion. The good news is that the moral imperative is backed-up by economics, technological advance and capital shifts and that means we no longer need this to be an ‘either-or’ argument." "Sangat menyedihkan bahwa kita tidak langsung melihat ketidakadilan mendalam yang melekat dalam perubahan iklim. Mereka yang paling tidak bertanggung jawab atas terjadinya perubahan iklim justru adalah yang paling rentan terhadap dampaknya. Ada juga ketidakadilan antargenerasi. Anak muda saat ini jelas tidak menyebabkan perubahan iklim, tetapi mereka akan menanggung dampaknya. Hal yang sama berlaku bagi perempuan, yang seringkali lebih rentan terhadap dampak perubahan iklim meski jarang menjadi penyebabnya. Jika kita melihat dunia dari sudut pandang moral, tidak ada pilihan lain selain menangani perubahan iklim dengan cepat. Kabar baiknya, tuntutan moral ini kini didukung oleh ekonomi, kemajuan teknologi, dan pergeseran modal."
• " In the American continent, we’ve had incredibly destructive, unprecedented, hurricanes but we have greater resilience and stronger infrastructure. The destruction experienced from climate events in the global north is perhaps not as profound as the global south and can be countered with financial instruments such as insurance and more integrated social protection networks to support rebuilding and health. While it’s true that industrialised nations have been hit by climate change, they come-back faster than their developing world counterparts. It’s also true that those countries in the equatorial-belt (15 degrees North and South of the equator) are also those which will be most hit by climate change due to increased temperatures leading to desertification and hydrological damage. Those are also the countries which tend to not have the financial and social resilience, and thus are hit on all sides." "Negara-negara maju memang terdampak perubahan iklim, tetapi mereka memiliki ketahanan dan infrastruktur yang lebih kuat. Negara berkembang sering kali tidak memiliki perlindungan finansial dan sosial yang memadai, sehingga dampaknya jauh lebih berat dan pemulihannya lebih lambat. Negara-negara di sekitar khatulistiwa juga akan paling terdampak akibat peningkatan suhu, desertifikasi, dan kerusakan sistem air, sementara mereka justru memiliki ketahanan paling rendah."
• "We have to get to a world that is powered by clean, efficient, smart and interconnected energy sources. We need ubiquitous cheap energy and must bring it to the millions of people that are still under the poverty line and for whom clean energy grids and transmission systems are unaffordable. We have to power our economic growth through clean, well distributed, ubiquitous energy and that will take a revolution in energy generation, storage and transmission. It’s also critical that we get to the point where transport is not so polluting and- indeed- becomes efficient and interconnected. We have to move away from the archaic and inefficient support structures in the economy to clean, efficient, smart levers. Let’s start with a dose of realism, no human endeavour goes without leaving a footprint. Many institutions have- however- quantified that this year, we have seen a reduction in global emissions of 8% through the stoppage of air-travel and production. The alternatives such as video-conferencing and digital communications do use energy hungry data centres, but increasingly those are moving towards renewables and are extremely efficient. None of us are angels, moving around without leaving a trace, but we can be more conscious and more intentional about our footprint. This year our footprint has gone down, but that has come at a huge human cost. There’s no way we can aspire to decarbonise the way we have done this year, that’s not responsible, the human cost cannot be sustained. We need responsible decarbonisation that creates jobs, creates wellbeing, and leaves the climate net better at the end." "Kita harus menuju dunia yang ditenagai oleh energi bersih, efisien, cerdas, dan saling terhubung. Energi murah dan bersih harus tersedia bagi jutaan orang yang masih hidup di bawah garis kemiskinan. Kita tidak mungkin hidup tanpa meninggalkan jejak, tetapi kita bisa lebih sadar dan bertanggung jawab. Dekarbonisasi harus dilakukan dengan cara yang menciptakan lapangan kerja, kesejahteraan, dan meninggalkan kondisi iklim yang lebih baik."
• "Most people think of optimism as a celebration, but for us optimism is a courageous choice to remain grittily determined to find solutions in a timely and collaborative way. We have no choice but to address climate change, and thus we have no choice but to remain stubbornly optimistic." "Banyak orang menganggap optimisme sebagai perayaan, tetapi bagi kami optimisme adalah pilihan berani untuk tetap bertekad mencari solusi secara tepat waktu dan kolaboratif. Kita tidak punya pilihan selain menghadapi perubahan iklim, dan karena itu kita juga tidak punya pilihan selain tetap bersikap optimis dengan penuh keteguhan."