“You are the cause of climate change, we are the result”: Yunus to the industrialized countries

The Paris Agreement, the global agreement to limit the effects of climate change, will not work as long as the world clings to the current economic system, its chief adviser Muhammad Yunus said yesterday.

Speaking at the New York Times Climate Forward Summit in New York, he said the system was geared towards maximising profits, creating wealth for a small group of people and generating enormous amounts of waste.

“The economic system we have built is the key to the destruction of this planet,” Yunus said, adding that humans have created a “self-destructive civilization.”

The New York Times Climate Forward Summit took place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. In addition to Yunus, Jane Goodall, a prominent zoologist and UN Messenger of Peace, and several other US government officials and business leaders also spoke at the event.

The Nobel Prize winner and pioneer of microfinance said that no matter what changes were made to the agreement, they would make no difference unless the world's underlying systems were redesigned.

Developing countries like Bangladesh should not have to bear the burden of climate damage caused by their wealthier counterparts, he said.

“Why should we bear the burden of all the destruction you have imposed on us?” Yunus said. “You are the cause, we are the result.”

He added that each individual must also take responsibility for producing less waste and reducing their fossil fuel footprint.