UN chief calls for greater action to fight climate change
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for stepping up action to fight climate change through various measures including tree plantation and reducing use of fossil fuels.
At a ministerial meeting on climate finance, in Bali, Indonesia, he said that limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees will require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.
He said that in order to achieve that target there is a need to put an end to deforestation by planting billions of more trees, drastically reducing the use of fossil fuels and massively increasing renewable energy; switching to climate-friendly sustainable agriculture.; considering new technologies, such as carbon capture and storage.In his remarks, the UN chief made a particular call for climate friendly investments, particularly in the infrastructure sector, where over $90 trillion in investments is expected by 2030.
Highlighting enormous economic losses to climate-related disasters and projections that by 2050, climate change could reduce annual GDP in some South and Southeast Asian countries by up to 4 per cent, the Secretary-General underscored that climate risk cannot be ignored.
He said that a new economic framework is needed that integrates climate and disaster risk in all aspects of finance, planning and budgeting.
He also called for fundamental shifts in climate financing, including government policies that can increase resources available for climate action. He urged the governments to put an end to fossil fuel subsidies to reduce the use of fossil fuel.
He said that the governments need to encourage their banks to support green financing and mobilization of private sector financing.
In his remarks, he also called on countries to make full use of the upcoming Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, to be held in Katowice, Poland, and to come out of the meeting with a robust framework that allows countries to implement the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
