Current response to climate change insufficient - ex-UN climate leaders
Ex-UN climate leaders say it's "unthinkable" to continue climate change efforts at the pace they are going as they are insufficient and leave the world on a "road to hell". According to a report by four senior members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat, urgent action is required to "avoid dangerous climate change", and to stay within agreed temperature increase thresholds. "Before we can seriously contemplate climate change 'heaven', we need to get off the current road to 'hell', even if it is paved with good intentions," said Richard Kinley, ex-UNFCCC deputy executive secretary. "Concrete and full implementation of already agreed commitments is the essential prerequisite for climate salvation." It's been 30 years since international negotiations on climate change began, and the report says while countries have successfully agreed to three "significant" UN climate treaties, it's not enough and global efforts are failing. The experts went on to make a plea to governments worldwide to implement their agreed commitments more effectively - asking business, other levels of government and society as a whole to support them in doing so. The report also suggested the use of taxes and eco-tariffs, "real action" on the removal of fossil fuels and phasing out coal, sector-specific strategies, and the development of "creative and even controversial" new international agreements. Experts expressed their frustration at how vague and distant targets often weren't backed up with adequate plans. "The Paris Agreement's national climate pledges - the nationally-determined contributions - were a great start," said Christiana Figueres, UN Climate Chief at the time of the Paris Agreement. "But they need to be significantly strengthened starting with the current round of updates, and then decisively implemented, if the global goals are to be met." World leaders are meeting on Saturday to discuss climate change goals and progress and mark five years since the Paris Agreement was adopted. The purpose of the Paris Agreement is to keep the global average temperature well below 2C above pre-industrial levels, with efforts taken to limit the temperature increase to 1.5C. The message from UNFCCC being that much more, at a much faster pace needs to be done if the world wishes to achieve these goals.