Climate negotiations started on Monday in Katowice, Poland, with United Nations secretary general Antonio Gutteres calling for countries to demonstrate “more ambitious commitment” to defeat climate change.
Thousands of world leaders, activists, financiers and captains of the private sector are attending the two-week United Nations Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties (COP24) to discuss guidelines to turn the Paris Agreement into action to save the planet from climate shocks.
Speaking when he opened the conference, Guterres said the Paris Agreement is not ambitious enough to tackle devastating effects of climate change, but it is “off-track” because the implementation of the commitments made at COP21 in France has been less ambitious and progress is slow to reach the targets by 2020.
He said: “Climate change is running faster than we are. The effects of climate change are dangerous and they are accelerating. The world is facing a paradox. We see what is happening on the ground is worse than what was predicted…. Disasters have become more frequent, intense and tragic than expected.”
Among other things, the UN chief called for a complete transformation of global energy economy as well as “how we manage land and forest resources”.
The COP24 host city has come under fire for its over-reliance on coal for running its industry and job market. Burning coal for energy is classified as one of the world’s major polluters.
COP24 president Michal Kurtyka called for “a just transition” to help countries still dependent on fossil fuels change their lifestyle.
On Monday, the World Bank Group announced a new set of climate targets for 2021-2025, doubling its current five-year investment to around $200 billion to support countries on climate action.
In Malawi, the World Bank is one of the major bankrollers of a State-run programme to assist communities affected by massive floods in 2015 to recover from the disaster and become more resilient to future catastrophes.
Malawi is among least developed countries hit hard by impacts of climate change, with floods and drought happening yearly.
(Source: The Nation Malawi, 5th December 2018)