BERLIN – United Nations Secretary General António Guterres has called for the world to take “a quantum leap in climate action”, when addressing a lead-up conference to the COP28 climate meeting hosted by the German Foreign Office today.
“We know that the 1.5°C pathway is possible,” Guterres told participants of the 14th edition of the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin in a video message.
Referring to one of the goals in the Paris Climate Agreement – preventing global warming from exceeding 1.5°C – Guterres said this requires developed countries and international financial institutions to deliver “on long-overdue finance”, and “breaking our fossil fuel addiction”, among other things, said German news agency (dpa).
Representatives from some 40 countries are among the attendees of the two-day conference held in Germany annually since 2010, this time to prepare for the UN’s COP28 climate change conference set to take place in Dubai in November.
In her opening remarks today, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock painted a more optimistic picture, saying she believes industrialised nations will keep their long-standing promise to financially support poorer states.
“The good news is that as things stand now, we are on a path to finally reach the US$100 billion figure this year,” she said, referring to the annual amount that richer nations originally pledged. – Bernama, May 2, 2023
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