Major carbon emitters withhold concrete plans at UN Climate Summit
Clear progress was made during Monday's UN Climate Summit on Monday, and despite the gigantic task at hand, efforts are being made to mitigate climate change.
That was the message from UN Secretary General António Guterres in a concluding speech at the summit.
"We can win this race," he said late Monday CET.
The summit meeting involves the global heads of state and government, prominent commercial figures and private investors and seeks to accelerate climate change mitigation efforts.
These figures have been called upon to submit concrete plans and not merely make fine speeches.
Guterres thinks the meeting has been a success in terms of being a summit for presenting plans of action, and he thanks the participants that submitted such plans.
The secretary general highlights a series of initiatives launched ahead of and during the meeting.
Some of these are new, some have grown in scale. Several countries have also announced that they are increasing their contributions to mitigating climate change.
However, none of the large CO2 emitters submitted tangible climate targets at the summit.
On the other hand, 70 nations committed to present more ambitious goals next year. 77 countries have pledged carbon neutrality by 2050, he says.
Guterres adds that there's a long way to go, and says much more needs to be done to attain carbon neutrality by 2050 and to ensure that rising global temperatures do not exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius relative to preindustrial levels this century.
The Paris Climate Accord aims to limit temperature increases to 1.5-2 degrees Celsius, preferably under 1.5 degrees.
The first degree is already passed. Climate science consensus indicates that the world is headed toward a temperature increase of approximately 3 degrees Celsius.
English Edit: Daniel Frank Christensen
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