Climate change conference shows Paris Agreement's resilience: UN chief

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday said that the Katowice climate change conference has shown the resilience of the Paris Agreement.

"Katowice has once again shown the resilience of the Paris Agreement -- our solid roadmap for climate action," stated UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in his speech, delivered by Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UFCCC) at the conclusion of the UN Climate Change Conference, also known as COP24, in the Polish city of Katowice.

Calling for a greater cooperation among nations, he said that the approval of the Paris Agreement Work Programme is the basis for a transformative process which will require strengthened ambition from the international community.

"Science has clearly shown that we need enhanced ambition to defeat climate change."

In his speech, he also outlined his priorities for the implementation of Paris Agreement.

"From now on, my five priorities will be: ambition, ambition, ambition, ambition and ambition.

"Ambition in mitigation. Ambition in adaptation. Ambition in finance. Ambition in technical cooperation and capacity building. Ambition in technological innovation."

He said his ambition will be at the centre of the Climate Summit that he will convene in September 2019.

Earlier in the day, nearly 200 nations agreed to enforce rules on implementing the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement, which comes into force in 2020.

The guidelines known as Paris rulebook will promote trust among nations that all countries are playing their part in addressing the challenge of climate change.

(Vishal Gulati is in Katowice at the invitation of Climate Trends to cover the 24th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, known as COP24. He can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)

--IANS

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