By Janet Ekstract
UNITED NATIONS (TURKISH JOURNAL – By Janet Ekstract – The United Nations has convened a global crisis summit in Madrid to urge nations to make more rapid changes for a ‘green’ future.
Prior to the current UN summit, the European Parliament voted to declare a “climate and environment emergency ” as a symbolic gesture.
The vote came a day after parliament also voted to endorse a new European Commission that plans a “‘European Green Deal” that would switch the EU economy to a future of low-carbon emissions.
The 12-day UN Climate Summit is designed to increase pressure on the European Commission to take more drastic action and to increase their commitments to cut emissions and battle climate change.
Environmental groups are demanding immediate action on all fronts of the war on climate change.
Director of the Climate Action Network, Wendel Trio said: “Declaring an emergency is important, but any such statement needs to be followed by emergency action.”
Trio added: “To act at the scale of the climate emergency, the parliament needs to push for real immediate action.
The vote to declare a climate emergency will encourage the European Commission to make certain that all relevant legislation and budget proposals are completely aligned with the objective of limiting global warming to under 1.5 degrees Celsius (35.7 degrees).
In a 2018 UN report on climate change effects, the results showed that greenhouse gases skyrocketed and hit a new peak that exceeded average yearly increases of the last decade. The report indicated that this leads to more destructive weather patterns – according to the World Meterorological Organization, (WMO).
WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said: “There is no sign of a slowdown, let alone a decline in greenhouse gases concentration in the atmosphere – despite all the commitments under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. ”
The secretary-general added: “This continuing long-term trend means that future generations will be confronted with increasingly severe impacts of climate change, including rising temperatures, more extreme weather, water stress, sea level rise and disruption to marine and land ecosystems – a summary of the UN report said.
The UN will issue it’s most updated report on the climate crisis toward the close of the ongoing 12-day summit.
