Climate change is now affecting every country on every continent. It is disrupting national economies and affecting people’s lives. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has noted that climate change is the defining issue of our time.
Climate change is a global challenge that does not respect national borders. Emissions in one country affect people living in another country. It is an issue that requires solutions that need to be coordinated at the international level and it requires international cooperation to help developing countries move toward a low-carbon economy.
The impacts of climate change can be seen in changing weather patterns, rising sea level, and more extreme weather events. The greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activities are driving climate change and continue to rise. They are now at their highest levels in history. Without action, the world’s average surface temperature is projected to rise by more than 3 degrees Celsius this century—with some areas of the world expected to warm even more. The poorest and most vulnerable people are being affected the most. Climate change could force as many as 216 million people to move within their countries by 2050.
In October 2015, the General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that included a goal, known as SDG 13, to “Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.” Just two months later, the international community reached a landmark agreement in Paris which urges countries to take steps to limit the average increase in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius, commits all countries to report regularly on their emissions, reaffirmed the obligations of developed countries to support developing countries, and calls for efforts to raise $100 billion a year to help mitigate and adapt to climate change by 2020. When this goal was not achieved, the deadline was extended to 2025, with a view to establishing a new global finance goal by 2025.
In response to global warming more people are turning to renewable energy and a range of other measures that will reduce emissions.
If Member States do not collectively succeed in implementing the Paris Agreement and also work together to achieve SDG 13, it will be close to impossible to achieve Agenda 2030. Limiting the human suffering from a warming planet will require transformational change in the resources we use to produce energy and how we manage our economies so that we minimise damage to the environment for present and future generations.
