United Nations’ (UN) climate special envoy, Luis Alfonso de Alba, has advocated that, the UN’S 2019 Climate Action Summit to be held next month in New York should deliver a solid plan of action to ensure radical changes with regard to climate change.
The summit has been called amid rising global emissions levels. The last four years have been the four hottest on record and winter temperatures in the Arctic have risen by 3 ˚C since 1990.
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The summit will bring together governments, the private sector, civil society, local authorities and other international organisations to develop ambitious solutions in six areas: a global transition to renewable energy; sustainable and resilient infrastructures and cities; sustainable agriculture and management of forests and oceans; resilience and adaptation to climate impacts, and alignment of public and private finance with a net zero economy.
The UN urges governments to come to the summit with clear, concrete and ambitious plans to address the worsening climate emergency, enhancing their nationally determined contributions by 2020.
The UN believes this should be in line with reducing green house-gas emissions by 45 percent over the next decade and to net zero emissions by 2050.
While sea levels are rising, coral reefs are dying and negative impacts on human health continue owing to air pollution, heatwaves and risks to food security.
The UN states that, if action is taken now, carbon emission can be reduced within 12 years and hold the global average temperature to well below 2 ˚C higher than pre-industrial levels and even to 1.5 ˚C above those levels.
Although the Paris Agreement is in place, setting out what needs to be done to stop climate disruption and reverse its impact, the UN says the agreement itself is meaningless without ambitious action.
According to De Alba,
“Business is on our side. Accelerated climate solutions can strengthen our economies and create jobs, while bringing cleaner air, preserving natural habitats and biodiversity, and protecting our environment.”
De Alba notes that, new technologies and engineering solutions are already delivering energy at a lower cost than the fossil fuel driven economy. Solar and onshore winds are now the cheapest sources of new bulk power in virtually all major economies. He insists that nation’s must set radical change in motion to realise set objectives.
