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No more excuses!!! All countries must step up fight against climate change – UN Advisor
Kaieteur News – Advisor to the Secretary-General and Assistant Secretary-General of the Climate Action Team at the United Nations, Selwin Hart, has issued a clarion call for all global governments to take bolder, ambitious actions to fight climate change and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
During an interview with United States news agency ABC Network earlier this month, Hart said the evidence that greenhouse gasses from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are contributing to global warming is “irrefutable”. Further to this, he pointed that these events have placed the lives of billions of people, animals and ecosystems at risk.
UN Advisor, Selwin Hart
“Now is not the time for delay. Now is not the time for excuses. That is why this year’s climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland represents a critical milestone for global efforts to address and defeat climate change. We need all leaders, all countries -rich, poor, big and small- to step up to the play… It is possible [to achieve net-zero]. We have the resources, we have the technologies to do it,” Hart expressed.
Although he called on all countries to play their part, the Assistant UN Advisor was keen to emphasize that wealthier countries must support resilience building and adaptation in the smaller, less-developed countries. Further to this, Hart pointed out that third world countries which are not the biggest contributors to emissions, often suffer from the brunt of climate change.
“This must be a global effort. It must be a moment for global solidarity. The U.S should reach out and support smaller, poorer nations that are already battling with many of these devastating impacts of climate change,” he said.
One of the first steps the world can take, Hart stated, is by decarbonizing the energy sector. To do this, he said that countries need to triple energy generations from renewable energy sources over the next decade or so. He was quick to point out that this goal has been achieved as he referred data between 2010 and 2020, which show that power generation from renewable sources – wind and solar in particular, – tripled in this period.
“We need to do this again but at a much grander scale,” Hart said.
If countries fail to lower emissions, the UN Advisor warned that the planet will become an “unlivable one” and reiterated that “billions of lives are at stake”.
“As the report (by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change) clearly outlines, we cannot survive in a four- or three-degree world. We are seeing these unprecedented impacts across the world,” he stated and referred to the ongoing wildfires in Greece.
When asked whether the United Nations anticipates that world leaders will take the necessary actions to curb the threat of climate change, Hart responded in the affirmative. He indicated that the UN is “cautiously optimistic” over positive change and added that over the past few months, many governments have committed to attaining net-zero by mid-century.
“About 73% of total global greenhouse gas emissions are now covered by a net-zero commitment,” Hart said; “The entire Group of 77 nations committed net-zero by 2050. We have also seen large economies making this commitment, but we need all 0f the G20 countries. These countries account for 80% of global emissions. We need all of these countries to commit as a first step, but also, back up this long-term commitment with ambitious interim targets.”
The UN advisor said whether the world wins or loses, the war against climate change rests on what happens in the next decade, as he added, that if the world does not limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the decade, then there is no hope of achieving the goal, the Paris Agreement.
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