Espinosa calls for more urgency in taking climate action

The Executive Secretary of United Nations Climate Change, Patricia Espinosa on Monday September 24, 2018 called for more urgency in taking climate action and stressed the need for leadership and a committed multilateral response.
Espinosa stated this in her remarks at the opening ceremony of New York Climate Week that kicked off on Monday.
The last round of formal negotiations took place in Thailand in September, in preparation of the UN Climate Change Conference in Poland (COP24) at the end of this year, with uneven progress.
“Recent negotiations in Bangkok on the Paris Agreement’s implementation guidelines made some progress, but not enough. We must therefore work harder than ever between now and COP24 to complete this work,” she said.
Patricia Espinosa received a Call for Action at the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco slightly over a week ago, which outlines how states, regions, cities, businesses, investors and communities are stepping up action to put the world on track for a climate-safe world.
In New York City, the UN’s top climate change official stressed the importance of an approach to climate action that empowers bottom-up action, in the form of inclusive multilateralism:
“Listen to the voices of billions who understand that time itself is a dwindling resource when it comes to climate change to those who understand that addressing climate change provides extraordinary opportunity and are acting,” she said.
She said climate change is an opponent we shaped with our own hands, but whose power now threatens to overwhelm us.
“Throughout the world, extreme heatwaves, wildfires, storms and floods are leaving a trail of devastation and death.
“Developing countries suffer the worst, but climate change affects all nations—directly and indirectly.
“It’s a challenge that a rules-based international order is custom-designed to address—which led to the Paris Agreement.