NIGERIA: The Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Inger Andersen has said that the inactions of governments and nations to address climate change has worsened global warming.
According to Andersen, with the current climate warming, no one is safe stressing the need to treat climate change as an immediate threat.
She said this at the press conference to launch the Summary for Policymakers of the Working Group I Contribution to the 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change titled “Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis.”
Read Also: World Lion Day 2021
“You have been telling us for over three decades of the dangers of allowing the planet to warm. The world listened, but it didn’t hear. The world listened, but it didn’t act strongly enough. As a result, climate change is a problem that is here, now. Nobody is safe. And it is getting worse faster.
“We must treat climate change as an immediate threat, just as we must treat the connected crises of nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste, as immediate threats.
As recently noted by the IPCC and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), climate change exacerbates already grave risks to biodiversity and natural and managed habitats.”
Possible Solution to climate change
According to Andersen, ecosystem degradation damages nature’s ability to reduce the force of climate change while reducing greenhouse gases will not only slow climate change but improve air quality.
“It is time to get serious because every tonne of CO2 emission adds to global warming. As the UNFCCC noted last week, just 110 of 191 Parties to the Convention have submitted new or updated NDCs ahead of the next climate COP. Governments need to make their net-zero plans an integral part of their Paris commitments.”
The Executive Director stressed the need for financing and supporting developing countries to adapt to climate change.
According to her, natural systems that draw down carbon need to be restored while everyone needs to play their part.
“We can’t undo the mistakes of the past. But this generation of political and business leaders, this generation of conscious citizens, can make things right.
“This generation can make the systemic changes that will stop the planet warming, help everyone adapt to the new conditions and create a world of peace, prosperity and equity.”
Comments are closed.