UN to hold Climate Summit in Sept 2019

Asserting that climate change is pushing the world towards "the edge of the abyss", UN chief Antonio Guteress has said that he will convene a meeting in September 2019 to bring climate action to the top of the international agenda.

The UN Secretary General also announced the appointment of Luis Alfonso de Alba, a former Mexican diplomat, as his Special Envoy to lead the preparations of the summit.

The summit, he said, will focus on the heart of the problem - the sectors that create the most emissions and the areas where building resilience could make the biggest difference - as well as provide leaders and partners the opportunity to demonstrate real climate action and showcase their ambition.

"I am calling on all leaders to come to next year's Climate Summit prepared to report not only on what they are doing, but what more they intend to do when they convene in 2020 for the UN climate conference and where commitments will be renewed and surely ambitiously increased," Guterres said in a speech on climate action here Monday.

In the same vein, he called on civil society and young people to push the agenda of climate action.

"There is no more time to waste. We are careering towards the edge of the abyss," Guterres said, adding that though it is not too late to shift course, "every day that passes means the world heats up a little more and the cost of our inaction mounts.