From now, my priorities will be ambition: UN chief

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said the Katowice climate change conference has shown once more the resilience of the Paris Agreement and from now his priorities will be ambition.

"Katowice has shown once more the resilience of the Paris Agreement -- our solid roadmap for climate action," the Secretary-General said on Saturday in remarks at the conclusion of the UN Climate Change Conference, known as COP24, in the Polish city of Katowice.

Delivered by UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa, he said 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.

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

Earlier, nearly 200 nations agreed to enforce rules on implementing the landmark 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement.

After day-long hectic negotiations on the second extended day of the COP24, the rulebook draft was adopted unanimously.

The Paris deal will come 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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