UN holds thematic debate to energize climate action

UNITED NATIONS, July 19 (Xinhua) -- With less than eight years remaining to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) convened a thematic debate on Tuesday, calling for concrete actions to tackle climate change.

"We know that we have backed ourselves into a corner with our recklessness. We know that this will only get worse, and quickly, as we continue to delay the actions that are needed," said Abdulla Shahid, president of the 76th UNGA session, who convened the high-level thematic debate "Moment for Nature."

During the day-long event, participants assessed recent decisions on the global environment agenda and presented solutions to common bottlenecks, such as gaps between commitments and actions and the need for broad mobilization.

Despite the immense challenges facing the world, the UNGA president believes that humanity can effect change.

"I myself remember a time when the power of renewable energies was viewed as far too weak and expensive to make a difference," he said. "Today, fleets of vehicles and countless homes run on renewables. Entire cities and countries aspire to be run on renewable energies."

"It is time for humanity to chart a new path of living in harmony with nature," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a video message, urging the international community to match commitments with actions.

With nature and its benefits deteriorating worldwide, "we face a triple crisis of climate disruption, biodiversity loss and pollution," said Guterres.

One million species of plants and animals are threatened with extinction, threatening the livelihood of millions. Three-quarters of the land and two-thirds of the ocean are adversely impacted by human activity. Some 3.2 billion people are affected by land degradation, he said.

"Since human activities are at the root of this planetary emergency, which means we also hold the key to the solutions," he said. "Now is the time to transform our relationship with nature and chart a new path."

UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed outlined areas where governments can take action.

"We must strengthen nature's capacity to protect us from hazards and extreme events. This means accelerating implementation of national restoration policies, programs and plans for marine and terrestrial ecosystems while creating new jobs, tackling poverty and improving sustainable development," she said.

Countries also need to "close the biodiversity finance gap" by 2030, she added, which currently stands at some 700 billion U.S. dollars per year. This can be done through repurposing and re-directing the 500 billion dollars per year for "harmful subsidies" towards more biodiversity-positive activities.

The President of the UN's Economic and Social Council, Collen Vixen Kelapile, underscored the urgency to act on the "mounting scientific evidence" on climate change.

"We should ... do everything we can to change our consumption and production patterns and make transformative change to nature-sensitive economic growth, nature-based solutions to rebuild our societies after COVID and preserve our environment," he said.

The review under discussion at the meeting was conducted by the UN Environment Programme, whose chief, Inger Anderson, catalogued the numerous outcomes from global gatherings over the past year, such as the COP27 climate conference in Glasgow, and the fifth UN Environment Assembly held in Nairobi.

"But we have not yet reached that moment for nature -- the moment when we truly find common ground for nature and deliver on the many commitments and pledges that have been made," she said in a video message.

This December, countries will gather in Montreal to conclude the Global Biodiversity Framework, a new set of goals for nature over the next decade. Andersen said it must result in "a massive political lift for nature," as well as adequate resource mobilization.

The UN secretary-general's special envoy for the ocean, Peter Thomson, said during a panel discussion by quoting the UN secretary-general that "a deep apology was owed from our generation...for the harm that we've done to the planet and that hence forth, we're going to work side by side with them (younger generations) to provide the solutions and implement the solutions to those problems."

Xiye Batista, the organizer for Fridays For Future, and co-founder of Re-Earth Initiative, said at the panel discussion "Including Young People for Intergenerational Coalitions" that "we have to change the narrative," adding that "we have to be able to speak the language, the legal language of the UN."

On specific solutions, Batista said that "we cannot keep fossil fuel proliferation," hoping that her country, Mexico, would change course by abandoning a petroleum-based energy policy, as young people demand.