UN Climate Change launched its Annual Report, highlighting the progress made on tackling climate change in 2018 and the ways in which the international community can raise ambition and achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.
“Stepping up action has never been more urgent. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report on the impacts of global warming at 1.5 °C, requested at COP21, made this crystal clear,” said UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa. “We are running out of time to stay under this limit.”
“I have hope. Alongside new scientific evidence and the increasingly observable signs of climate change – from melting glaciers to massive storms – 2018 showed that the world is now ready and determined to act. As this annual report illustrates, the UNFCCC secretariat continued to support tirelessly the global climate platform that supports and encourages this progress,” she added.
The report covers the key achievements of the UNFCCC intergovernmental process and the activities of the secretariat, particularly the impacts of those activities in support of the Convention, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement.
For example, at COP24 in December 2018 the world agreed the majority of the guidelines to put the Paris Agreement into action through the Katowice climate package.
The report also looks ahead at the work to come, in particular the need to put the final touches to the Paris Agreement Work Programme in 2019, for nations to revise upwards their Nationally Determined Contributions and for climate change to be reflected in almost every decision that governments, organizations, businesses, investors and individuals make for years to come.
In 2019, events such as regional climate weeks, regional dialogues, capacity-building sessions and meetings, as well as COP25 in Chile in December, will provide vital opportunities to collectively advance efforts and set the stage for the greater action that will be needed over the next years. Another key moment will be the 23 September UN Climate Action Summit convened by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
Read and download the full report here.
Original source: UNFCCC
Published on 07 June 2019
