UNITED NATIONS – The Climate Action Summit wrapped up Friday evening aftersome 70 world leaders, including Prime Minister Imran Khan, delivered araft of new measures aimed at making a big dent in greenhouse gasemissions, and ensuring that the warming of the planet is limited to 1.5degrees Celsius.
Speaking to reporters at UN Headquarters in New York, UN Secretary-GeneralAntonio Guterres especially mentioned the announcement by PM Khan thatPakistan was scrapping plans for new coal power plants.
“Pakistan announced no new coal power plants,” the UN chief said, as herecounted the number of countries coming forward with strengthened nationalclimate plans (NDCs), with commitments covering some of the world’s biggestemitters on display.
Pakistan has seen coal power capacity increase from very low levels to asubstantial 5 gigawatts over the past five years. But in his address to theonline summit, Prime minister Imran Khan said that 60% of all energy by2030 will be from renewables and 30% of all vehicles will be powered byelectricity.
On his Twitter account, Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram drew attentionto Pakistani premier’s ambitious plan as part of country’s unwaveringcommitment toward combating climate change.
Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi failed to make new concreteannouncements on the climate ambition of the world’s third-largestpolluter. Modi only reiterated commitments announced in previous months,including increasing the country’s renewable power capacity to 175gigawatts before 2022 and to 450 gigawatts by 2030.ALSO READ UN Chief urges world leaders to declare ‘climate emergency’link
China’s President Xi Jinping committed to increasing the share ofnon-fossil fuel in primary energy consumption to around 25% by 2030.
Britain, which is hosting next year’s UN Climate Conference, announced thatit will cut emissions by 68 per cent, compared to 1990 levels, within thenext five years, and the European Union bloc committed to a 55 per cent cutover the same time period.
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Small island nations are not among large emitters of greenhouse gases, butthey’re among the most affected by global warming, said Barbados PrimeMinister Mia Mottley. This year’s hurricane season has ended with a recordof 30 named storms.
The survival of these nations depends on other countries raising ambitionin their emissions pledges, she said. Without more ambition “There will beno build-back-better for countries and economies like mine.”
Italy will donate 30 million euros ($36 million) to the UN Adaptation Fund,Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said.
France will introduce a new climate law over the next few weeks which willinclude specific measures proposed by citizens to help the economytransition toward climate neutrality, French President Emmanuel Macron said.
Measures to transition toward a low-carbon economy include halting allsupport toward the exploration of new fossil fuel deposits within the nextfive years, not building new coal plants and forcing financial firms todisclose financial risk, he said.
UN Secretary-General Guterres called on governments to declare a climateemergency to accelerate efforts toward carbon neutrality. That’ll be theUN’s central objective for next year, he said.
