Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus on Wednesday highlighted the importance of mobilising intellectual, financial and youth power to lay the foundation for a new civilisation—a self-preserving and self-reinforcing civilisation.
"The climate crisis is intensifying. Our civilisation is at grave risk as we continue to promote self-destructive values," he said while speaking at the COP29.
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev invited heads of states and governments to participate in the two-day World Leaders Climate Action Summit (WLCAS).
The 29th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) is taking place from November 11 to 22.
Presenting the "climate catastrophe" in a different perspective, Prof Yunus said safety of the environment needs a new lifestyle which would not be imposed but it will be a choice.
"Young people love that lifestyle as a choice. Each young person will grow up as a three zero person—zero net carbon emissions, zero wealth concentration, through building social businesses only, and zero unemployment by turning themselves into entrepreneurs," he said.
The Nobel Peace Laureate said each person will grow up as a three zero person, and remain a three zero person all his/her life, and that will create the new civilisation.
"It can be done. All we need to do is to accept a new lifestyle consistent with the safety of the planet and all who live on it. Today’s generation of youth will do the rest. They love their planet," Prof Yunus said, hoping that others will join him in this dream.
"If we dream together, it will happen," he said, sharing his longstanding dream of creating a new world of three zeroes.
Stressing that this perspective will take them from fixing climate destruction to stopping further carnage, Prof Yunus said the human inhabitants of this planet are the cause of the destruction of the planet.
"We are doing it deliberately. We have chosen a lifestyle which works against the environment. We justify this with an economic framework which is considered as natural as the planetary system," he said.
The interim government chief said that the economic framework thrives on limitless consumption.
"The more you consume the more you grow. The more you grow, the more money you make," he said, adding that maximisation of profit is treated as the force of gravity which lets everything in the system play its role according to our desire.
In order to survive, Prof Yunus said, the world needs to create another culture—a counter-culture which is based on a different lifestyle.
"It is based on zero waste. It will limit consumption to essential needs, leaving no residual waste. This lifestyle will also be based on zero carbon. No fossil fuel. Only renewables," he said.
Prof Yunus said this will be an economy based primarily on zero personal profit—social business.
This business is defined as a non-dividend business addressed to solve social and environmental problems.
"A vast part of social businesses will focus on protecting the environment and mankind," he said, adding that human lives will not only be protected but qualitatively enhanced through affordable healthcare and education.
It will facilitate entrepreneurship for the youth.
"Young people will get prepared through a new education of entrepreneurship. Education for creating” job seekers will be replaced by entrepreneurship-focused education," Prof Yunus said.
The invitation to the WLCAS in the Republic of Azerbaijan during COP29 signifies the importance for world leaders to engage and enhance ambition and enable action to reduce emissions, adapt to climate change, and address loss and damage, to implement and transform key climate related decisions into concrete actions and credible plans to tackle climate change, said the organizers.
The Summit aims to build consensus and momentum around the COP29 plan to enhance ambition and enable action and demonstrate to all stakeholders a clear political will to deliver.
It will address raising ambition for mitigation and adaptation through nationally determined contributions (NDCs), National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), and long-term low-emission development strategies (LT-LEDS), enabling action with the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate (NCQG), and other means of implementation and support.
Prof Yunus joined a closed door Climate Leaders Meeting hosted by Germany and Chile.
He also joined a roundtable on "Access to Finance for Small Scale Farmers" to be co-hosted by Bangladesh and the Netherlands.
The Chief Adviser arrived in Baku on Monday evening to attend the UN's biggest climate conference, COP29, which is seen as a "pivotal opportunity" to accelerate action to tackle the climate crisis.
Bangladesh Ambassador to Turkey Amanul Haq, among others, was present at the airport to receive the Chief Adviser upon his arrival at 5:15pm (Baku time) on Monday.
Prof Yunus is leading a small delegation and will return home on November 14, a senior official at the CA's office told UNB.
Global leaders and diplomats from across the world are joining the annual climate summit to discuss how to avoid increasing threats from climate change in a place that was one of the birthplaces of the oil industry.