66 nations vow carbon neutrality: UN
UNGA COMMITMENT The climate emergency is a race we are losing, but one we can win, says secretary-general
UNITED NATIONS: Sixty-six countries have signalled their intent to achieve net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, the United Nations said on Monday, seen as a vital goal in preventing catastrophic longer term climate change.
“In terms of the 2050 group, 66 governments are joined by 10 regions, 102 cities, 93 businesses and 12 investors - all committed to net zero CO2 emissions by 2050,” the office of UN Secretary-general Antonio Guterres said in a statement.“the climate emergency is a race we are losing, but it is a race we can win,” he said.
Some 60 world leaders have convened for the UN climate action summit in New York aimed at reinvigorating the faltering Paris agreement, at a time when mankind is releasing more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than at any time in history.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will speak, along with the leaders of New Zealand, the Marshall Islands, and Germany’s Angela Merkel.
The UN estimates that the world needs to increase its current efforts fivefold to contain climate change to the levels dictated by science - a rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius by the year 2100 to avoid escalating climate damage.
Countries announced commitments to carbon reduction targets under the Paris Agreement of 2015, and are now expected to update their “nationally determined contributions” by 2020.
From heat waves to slowcrawling hurricanes to rapidly acidifying oceans, the impacts of global warming are being felt more than ever before, yet the gap between carbon reduction targets demanded by scientists to avert catastrophe and actions thus far taken is only widening.
It is within this context that a new, youth-led movement has emerged and re-energised climate activism, symbolised by Swedish teen Greta Thunberg.
Thunberg along with millions of others around the world rallied on Friday calling for climate justice and for the voices of the younger generations who will be most affected by increasing extreme weather events to be heard.
Fewer than half the 136 heads of government or state in New York this week to attend the UN General Assembly will be present. Among the list of those absent will be US President Donald Trump, who pulled his country out of the Paris Accord upon taking power and has made slashing environmental regulations a key part of his platform.
Likewise, President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, under whose leadership the Amazon rainforest is continuing to burn at record rates, and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison whose government has pursued an aggressively pro-coal agenda.
China, the world’s biggest carbon emitter by far, but also a leader in the renewables sector, will be represented by foreign minister Wang Yi, with Guterres hinting Beijing will be committing to new measures. Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation and one of the architects of the Paris agreement, told AFP the summit represented a “moment of truth” but was also taking place at a time of great political headwinds. “There’s a tension between the countries that want to... translate their goals into real policies” and those that do not, she said. Protesters gather on Westminster bridge in London, UK, ahead of the UN climate summit taking place in New York,us.
"With the very high number of world leaders coming to the UN, we have a chance to advance diplomacy for peace ."
— ANTONIO GUTERRES,