With ‘critical year’ for climate action, UN announces a roadmap to Climate Summit in 2019

United Nations, Feb 15: “2019 is a critical year, the “Last Chance” for the international community to take effective action on climate change”, General Assembly President Maria Espinosa on Thursday, while announcing the UN’s roadmap to the Climate Summit in September 2019.

Ms. Espinosa said that with the deadline for achieving the first targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development fast approaching, described by Secretary-General António Guterres as “the UN’s blueprint for peace, justice, and prosperity on a healthy planet”, the world stood at a crossroads.

Ms. Espinosa was speaking alongside the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on the Climate Summit, Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba of Mexico, at UN Headquarters in New York.

"Two-thirds of these targets", Ms. Espinosa said, "depend on climate and environment goals, and a five-fold increase in commitments from their current levels is needed in order to meet the targets set at the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement on dealing with greenhouse gas emissions mitigation, adaptation, and finance, due to come into force in 2020".

 

Further, she added, "All of the events, share two goals: a doubling of commitments and ambition at a national level, and ensuring the inclusion of diverse groups in the process of climate action".

 

In March, the General Assembly will host High-Level Meeting on Climate and "Sustainable Development for All", which is intended to build on the success of COP24, the 2018 climate conference in Katowice, Poland, which led to the establishment of a “rulebook” for the reporting of emissions and the progress made in cutting them, every year from 2024.

Ms. Espinosa stated, "The March meeting will welcome representatives of the private sector, civil society, and young people, and look to harness the enthusiasm of the latter group, who will be most affected by a warming world".

Multilateralism, said Ms. Espinosa, is the only effective to combat climate change, which is one of the main challenges facing the world and can only be overcome with constructive input from all. She concluded with a proverb: “’If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you wish to go far, go together.’ Let’s travel this road together.”

2019 needs to see action, said Ambassador de Alba, including partnerships with the private sector and civil society, and a huge mobilization of resources ( a target of 1 trillion dollars per year to support developing countries has been set), to invest “in our future, for jobs in a green future.”

On the 30th of June, in the build-up to the Climate Summit, a “stocktaking” event will take place in Abu Dhabi, followed by a High Level Political Forum under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council in July, which will see a review of the progress made in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 13 with“urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”.

The Climate Summit will be followed by the first-ever High-Level Political Forum on Climate Action, sponsored by the General Assembly on September 24. The year will be rounded off by the 2019 Climate Conference COP25, which will take place in Chile.