{"id":41796,"date":"2017-11-15T18:31:25","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T18:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/?p=41796"},"modified":"2018-04-22T11:48:17","modified_gmt":"2018-04-22T15:48:17","slug":"cop23-un-chief-urges-ambition-leadership-partnerships-climate-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/blog\/2017\/11\/cop23-un-chief-urges-ambition-leadership-partnerships-climate-action\/","title":{"rendered":"COP23: Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ chief urges more ambition, leadership and partnerships on climate action"},"content":{"rendered":"

Addressing the United Nations Climate Conference (COP23<\/a>) in Bonn, Germany, on Wednesday,\u00a0Secretary-General<\/a>\u00a0Ant\u00f3nio Guterres called for more ambition, more leadership and more partnerships to tackle climate change.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur duty \u2013 to each other and to future generations \u2013\u00a0is to raise ambition<\/a>,\u201d said Mr. Guterres at the opening of the high-level segment of COP23, which was also attended by Heads of State and Government, including President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Prime Minister of Fiji, Frank Bainimarana, who is also the President of COP23.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to do more on five ambition action areas: emissions, adaptation, finance, partnerships and leadership,\u201d the Secretary-General added.<\/p>\n

The Bonn Conference, which opened on 6 November 2017, is taking place one year after the entry into force of the Paris Climate Agreement.<\/p>\n

The Agreement, which was adopted by the 196 Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵFCCC<\/a>) in December 2015, calls on countries to combat climate change by limiting the rise of global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius and strive not to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius. Today, 170 Parties have ratified the treaty.<\/p>\n

Regarding emissions reductions, the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ chief urged countries \u201cto use the 2020 revision of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to close the 2030 emissions gap.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also stressed how essential climate mitigation is, calling for adaptation measures and strengthening resilience. The\u00a0Green Climate Fund<\/a>\u00a0can play a catalytic role in this regard. He appealed to its members, especially donor nations, to reinvigorate engagement with that vital finance mechanism.<\/p>\n

\n

The world should adopt a simple rule: If big infrastructure projects aren\u2019t green, they shouldn\u2019t be given the green light. Otherwise we will be locked into bad choices for decades to come-Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ chief Guterres<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As greater ambition on emissions, adaptation and resilience \u201cis inextricably linked to funding,\u201d the Secretary-General stressed the need \u201cto mobilize the agreed $100 billion annually for developing countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must stop making bets on an unsustainable future that will place savings and societies at risk,\u201d he added, stressing that \u201cif we add the economic benefits of avoiding the devastation of climate change impacts, gross domestic product (GDP) in 2050 would soar by 5 per cent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world should adopt a simple rule: If big infrastructure projects aren\u2019t green, they shouldn\u2019t be given the green light. Otherwise we will be locked into bad choices for decades to come. Investing in climate-friendly development is where the smart money is needed,\u201d Mr. Guterres said.<\/p>\n

The Secretary-General stressed that more ambition required action coalitions across all key sectors and by all actors. \u201cWe must engage all actors \u2013 national, regional and local governments, philanthropists and investors and consumers \u2013 in the transformation to a low-emission economy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As for political leadership, Mr. Guterres encouraged countries to be bold in their deliberations and decisions in Bonn and at home. \u201cShow wisdom in investing in the opportunities of the future. Show compassion in caring what kind of world we build for our children,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

Also addressing the COP23 High-Level segment, the President of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ General Assembly, Miroslav Laj\u010d\u00e1k,\u00a0reminded participants<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cthe decisions we make today will affect not only us \u2013 but also those who come after.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIf we hand over a planet with an uncertain future, history will not forgive us.\u201d<\/p>\n

For his part, Mr. Guterres welcomed a series of summits and conferences on climate change which are scheduled ahead of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Climate Summit in September 2019, including the \u2018One Planet summit\u2019 to be convened by France next month and focusing on financing, a gathering in California, bringing together non-State actors, and the COP24 in Katowice, Poland, in December 2018.<\/p>\n

Via Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ News Centre<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Addressing the United Nations Climate Conference (COP23) in Bonn, Germany, on Wednesday,\u00a0Secretary-General\u00a0Ant\u00f3nio Guterres called for more ambition, more leadership and more partnerships to tackle climate change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":41799,"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":[20,4,30],"tags":[144,7265,463],"class_list":["post-41796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-change","category-news","category-secretary-general","tag-climate-change","tag-cop23","tag-secretary-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41796","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\/230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}