“Climate change is the defining issue of our time – and we are at a defining moment,” the Secretary-General said. said during the Informal Leaders’ Dialogue on Climate Change, held on the sidelines of the annual high-level segment of the General Assembly.
“[…] we have many priorities at the UN – peace and security, human rights and development – but I would say this is the top priority.
Mr. Guterres recalled that when world leaders signed the Paris Agreement on Climate Change Three years ago, they pledged to keep the global temperature increase well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to work to keep the increase as close to 1.5 degrees as possible.
These targets were agreed, he stressed, as the “bare minimum” to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
“The commitment was universal – but we are far from where we need to be to achieve these minimum targets,” he said, adding that a UN study found that commitments made so far by parties to the Paris Agreement are only a third of what is needed.
“We need to do more and faster: we need more ambition and accelerated action by 2020.”
Today’s meeting takes place as part of what is being called “New York Climate Week” and follows the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco earlier this month.
It also follows a historic speech this month by the Secretary-General, in which he warned that the world risks “passing the point of no return” on climate change and highlighted the need to accelerate action to address this global threat.
To mobilize more action and funding, the Secretary-General will convene a Climate Summit in September 2019 to “focus on the heart of the problem”.
“Only a significantly higher level of ambition will suffice – and the Summit will be an opportunity for leaders and partners to demonstrate their ambition. »
A key moment on the road to next year’s Summit will be the 24th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – known informally as COP24 – which will be held in December in Katowice, Poland.
We acknowledge The European Times for the information.
