FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. called for immediate action on addressing climate issues at the high-level meeting on Climate and Sustainable Development for All on March 29 at the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York.
“If climate action does not measure up to what is needed, we all face the same fate of diminished existence, or extinction altogether,” he said.
Locsin pointed out that climate change is happening, its effects as bad as anticipated, and faster than estimated. He noted that while the Philippines has put in place effective programs for more accurate and integrated disaster anticipation, prevention and adaptation to cope with climate change. He averred that what is needed is action by major carbon-emitting countries.
“If the most capable and able will not do more to slow and halt climate change, most will eventually stop talking about it and let climate change run its full and fatal course: [risking] the desertification or inundation of our planet; the starvation and extinction of populations; and the end of everything worthwhile attained by human ingenuity,” the secretary added.
The theme of the meeting was “Climate Protection for All: Protection of the Global Climate for Present and Future Generations of Humankind in the context of the Economic, Social and Environmental Dimensions of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”
It was convened through the president of the General Assembly’s 73rd Session Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garcés to highlight interlinkages between climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as to promote an intergenerational approach to climate action.
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa, Fiji Prime Minister Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama and Poland’s Environment Minister Michal Kurtyka, as well as Chile’s Environment Minister Carolina Schmid, presidents of the UNFCCC’s Conference of Parties, all addressed the meeting.
Image credits: UN/Manuel Elias