{"id":32164,"date":"2017-09-26T22:19:59","date_gmt":"2017-09-26T22:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/?p=32164"},"modified":"2018-04-22T11:50:14","modified_gmt":"2018-04-22T15:50:14","slug":"un-secretary-generals-remarks-at-leaders-dialogue-on-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/blog\/2017\/09\/un-secretary-generals-remarks-at-leaders-dialogue-on-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Secretary-General’s remarks at Leaders’ Dialogue on Climate Change"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL<\/b>
\n—
\nREMARKS AT LEADERS’ DIALOGUE ON CLIMATE CHANGE<\/b>
\nNew York, 19 September 2017<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n

Thank you for being here today.<\/p>\n

Your leadership is absolutely key to attaining and raising the ambition of the Paris Agreement.<\/p>\n

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma and Maria and the massive floods in South Asia are just the most recent demonstration of the urgency of tackling climate change.<\/p>\n

Such events will only become more frequent and more savage, with more dramatic humanitarian and economic consequences.<\/p>\n

Countries have signed up to the Paris Agreement.<\/p>\n

But we know that current pledges and plans are insufficient to keep global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees.<\/p>\n

In 2020, Parties will review progress.<\/p>\n

By then, we need to make sure that we have substantially raised the bar of ambition.<\/p>\n

We are still on a path for a world that may be 3 or more degrees warmer.<\/p>\n

We need emissions to peak and resilience to build.<\/p>\n

Last year, more than 24 million people were displaced by weather-related disasters.<\/p>\n

And the number of such events has nearly quadrupled since 1970.<\/p>\n

Climate change is challenging the security of many states, especially small islands.<\/p>\n

The answer lies in the total transformation of our economies, and this is achievable.<\/p>\n

Globally, investment in green infrastructure has grown six-fold in a decade to almost $300 billion dollars.<\/p>\n

The rate of growth is highest in emerging economies.<\/p>\n

Today, over half of new power generation capacity comes from renewable energy.<\/p>\n

In Europe, it is 90 per cent.<\/p>\n

Off-grid energy solutions are also becoming simpler and cheaper.<\/p>\n

In the US, Tesla solar roof tiles are stronger and 20 per cent cheaper, when you factor in energy savings and tax credits.<\/p>\n

And jobs are being created.<\/p>\n

Last year, the renewable energy sector employed 9.8 million people, and such jobs are projected to rise to 26 million by 2050.<\/p>\n

Momentum is growing.<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s make it grow even more.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, I laid out my strategy on climate change at New York University.<\/p>\n

I announced the intention to convene a Climate Summit in 2019, here in New York.<\/p>\n

We need all actors in society to work for a clean low emissions future \u2013 national and local governments, businesses and investors, scientists, civil society and citizens everywhere.<\/p>\n

That is why I asked you here today.<\/p>\n

We need to build ambition and accelerate action \u2013 before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n

We have set out six issues for you to focus on: investment in clean technology; carbon pricing; the energy transition; risk mitigation; augmenting the contribution of sub-national actors and business; and mobilizing finance.<\/p>\n

I want, by the time of the Climate Summit, to show that climate action works \u2013 that YOUR climate action and leadership works \u2013 that transformation is happening.<\/p>\n

I count on you all to create examples for others to follow.<\/p>\n

I just came from a meeting with Gra\u00e7a Machel, and remembering her late husband, Nelson Mandela, it is necessary to say again that \u2018things always seem impossible until they are done.\u2019<\/p>\n

And this time we are already doing it.<\/p>\n

So, our task is daunting.<\/p>\n

But I know it is possible.<\/p>\n

Thank you very much for coming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL — REMARKS AT LEADERS’ DIALOGUE ON CLIMATE CHANGE […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":243,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,4,5270,30],"tags":[144],"class_list":["post-32164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate-change","category-news","category-press-material","category-secretary-general","tag-climate-change"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/243"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32164\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}