The Climate Risk Index 2020, Germanwatch's annual report, which ranks countries according to their vulnerability to extreme weather conditions, has ranked India as the fifth most vulnerable country globally. India's overall ranking has drastically fallen from 14th in 2017, to fifth in 2018.
Amidst all this, TED has announced a new initiative called Countdown in New York City. The new climate change initiative has been rolled out with the help of YouTube and a slew of global leaders and NGOs. It plans to gather original ideas to combat the climate crisis. The announcement was made by TED head Chris Anderson alongside Christiana Figueres.
The Countdown Summit will be held in Bergen, Norway from October 6, 2020 to October 9, 2020 and the following day will be celebrated as a major global gathering coordinated by the TEDx community and other partners. The content for Countdown will focus on five big questions that include Power, Built Environment, Transport, Food and Nature. Furthermore, anyone can participate in helping towards creating a change, and the “intent is not to be something brand new, but to amplify and cross-fertilize the extraordinary work that has already been done by so many.”
Countdown revealed that a team led by Future Stewards and TED will select the best proposals and turn them into talks, which in turn, will be delivered at the Countdown summit in Bergen, in front of an audience who are capable of turning those ideas into action. Speaking at the event, Chris Anderson, Head of TED said, “To turn the tide on climate will require an unprecedented response at all levels of society. We face a climate crisis that threatens us all, and while TED has never before taken on a specific issue, we concluded that it's no longer enough just to spread ideas. Some issues demand urgent action, which is what propelled us to take on what will be the most ambitious initiative ever attempted by this organization. And it's only possible because so many extraordinary partners have joined the growing Countdown coalition to lay the foundation."
Former Vice President Al Gore too spoke at the event, stating, "We are running out of time to solve the climate crisis," before going on to add that the solutions are available and “millions of global citizens are calling for action.” Pierce Brosnan, Don Cheadle, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ava DuVernay, Davis Guggenheim, Jimmy Kimmel, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Norman and Lyn Lear, Rooney Mara, Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, and Meg Ryan are some of the celebrities associated with Countdown. According to the Countdown website, "We must cut net greenhouse emissions from the current 55 gigatons per year to zero."
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