Former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed his regret this Tuesday that the youth and the under-resourced population are those “who will lose the most” with global warming and consider a “moral imperative” of his generation “to give space. It means” for the youngest to build a greener world. “
During his intervention in a debate with young people at the Climate Adaptation Summit (CAS) held in the Netherlands on Monday and Tuesday, the South Korean diplomat warned that the epidemic “threatens to throw off the efforts we have made” as part of the Paris Agreement and towards the sustainable development goals.
“Climate change has endangered our societies and lifestyles. It has caused massive floods and devastating fires around the world, and increased global poverty and inequality at all levels.” He stressed that it is deeply unfair to those who have contributed the least to global warming. Young and poor, because they have the most to lose.
He considered that responding to both the challenges posed by the epidemic and the climate emergency poses a “tremendous challenge, but it also provides opportunities to do things differently and rebuild a pattern” with a greener lifestyle, because the current crisis is “an opportunity for a greener recovery, creating more green jobs and more.” Resilience “in the most affected communities.
For Ban Ki-moon, the younger generation is the “key” to this mission, and he expressed his regret that the current generation is “the first generation that did not know a world without global warming, so it is a moral imperative” of the world. “Give them the space and the means to succeed” in their attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt the world to the “inevitable” consequences of climate change.
In a message to a group of young people participating in the CAS, the South Korean diplomat stressed that his “ambition, vitality, and determination”, along with “opportunities and financial support,” would lead to “a huge step towards building a more resilient country of the future” and to mitigate the climate impacts.
“I have spoken and we must listen. Together, we must act. I call on world leaders, governments and civil society to make this decade a decade of work and investment in youth because it is an investment in current and future generations. It is time to address the warnings.”
Since yesterday and for 24 consecutive hours, The Hague has organized several discussions between heads of state and government from all over the world, UN officials, businessmen, NGOs, civil society and organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, in search of practical solutions and plans for climate adaptation and mitigation. .
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