Protecting environment ‘key challenge of our times’

European declaration points to threats to global peace, stability

Leaders from16 European countries called Friday for greater efforts to curb global warming ahead of international climate talks taking place in Poland next month.

In a joint declaration, presidents and prime ministers from Cyprus to Sweden described climate change as “the key challenge of our time,” noting that average global temperatures have increased sharply since pre-industrial times.

“We have felt the immediate effects as recently as this summer, including in Europe,” the leaders said. “Heat waves and scorching fires from Greece to the Arctic Circle claimed the lives of dozens of women, men, and children while eradicating the livelihoods of many others.”

The declaration, spearheaded by Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen, says that while further warming “is a serious threat to peace and stability around the globe,” measures to prevent it are both necessary and potentially beneficial to economies and societies around the world.

Negotiators gathering in Poland next month will seek to finalize the framework of the 2015 Paris climate accord and discuss setting new, more ambitious goals for 2025. So far, the targets put forward by the more than 190 countries are insufficient to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to levels where global warming will remain under 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, let alone the 1.5-degree target set in Paris.