Climate adaptation leaders urge more ambition in resilience building

Experts and leaders meeting at the Korea Global Adaptation Week in Songdo, the Republic of Korea, have urged countries to increase their climate ambition and to scale up their efforts to build resilience to the unavoidable impacts of climate change.

The meeting, attended by representatives of national and sub-national government authorities, academia, the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the UN and many other organizations, is taking place against the backdrop of the aftermath of Cyclone Idai, which has impacted millions of people in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi.

“We have a huge responsibility to take action as we see extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change,” UN Climate Change (UNFCCC) Deputy Executive Secretary Ovais Sarmad, stressed during the high-level opening session of the Korea Global Adaptation Week.

The UN official called on governments to swiftly increase their ambition, given that the most recent UN Environment Emissions Gaps Reports reveal that current national climate action plans (“Nationally Determined Contributions, or “NDCs”) will not be enough to hold global warming below 2 degrees Celsius.

The UNFCCC Deputy Executive Secretary specifically mentioned the need to update the current NDCs in line with the science and the Paris Agreement before the starting implementation date in 2020.

Ovais Sarmad highlighted the fact that there is now consensus on the implementation of the Paris Agreement, with the Paris Agreement rulebook approved last year in Katowice.

“The world has embarked on a major chapter in addressing climate change to raise ambition and to take concrete actions…we now have the tools, the global agreements and more importantly also public awareness especially by the younger generation”, he said.

Original source: UNFCCC
Published on 10 April 2019