News sources quoted from: The United Nations
Media www.rajawalisiber.com – Noon briefing by Florencia Soto Nino, Associate Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.
Highlights:
– Secretary-General/COP26 – Children and Armed Conflict – Secretary-General/COVID-19 – COVAX – Ethiopia – Libya – Afghanistan – Myanmar – United Nations Headquarters – Hybrid Press Briefing – Financial Contribution.
SECRETARY-GENERAL/COP26 Today in Glasgow, Scotland, the Secretary-General delivered the keynote address at the COP26 World Leaders Summit.
Mr. Guterres gave a blunt assessment of the status of our efforts to combat climate change as we face the hottest years on record. The world’s addiction to fossil fuels is pushing us to the brink and it is time to stop it before it stops us, he said.
Recent climate action announcements might give the impression that we are on track to turn things around. This is an illusion, the Secretary-General warned. The Secretary-General also identified three areas of action. First, keeping the goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius alive. He called on delegates – from all countries – to show maximum ambition, in terms of mitigation and immediate concrete action to reduce emissions by 45% by 2030.
Second, he told COP attendees to do more to protect vulnerable communities from the clear and present danger. All donors must allocate half of their climate finance to adaptation, he stressed.
Third, the Conference, must be a moment of solidarity by making the $100 billion commitment a reality. The Secretary-General implored the leaders to choose ambition, to choose solidarity and to choose to safeguard our future and save humanity.
Also today, the Secretary-General held two bilateral meetings. He met with the head of Kuwait’s delegation to the COP, Prime Minister HE Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah, and he discussed Kuwait’s Nationally Determined Contribution and welcomed Kuwait’s efforts to increase renewable energy and nature-based solutions to address climate action.
The Secretary-General also met with the Special Envoy for Climate of China, Mr. Xie Zenhua. They had a prolonged exchange on how to organize and provide coalition-based support to help emerging economies accelerate decarbonization as well as on how to phase out coal.
The Secretary-General also joined a UK event hosted by Prime Minister Boris Johnson entitled “Action and Solidarity – the Critical Decade.” The event is designed to bring leaders from a small group of developed and developing nations to a roundtable to put solutions on the table and set the course for the two weeks of negotiations.
He told the leaders gathered around the table to instruct their Ministers and negotiators to aim high and match ambition with action. We need to leave Glasgow in two weeks with a comprehensive and balanced deal, he added.
Later this evening, the Secretary-General will attend a reception hosted by the UK government for COP participants. And tomorrow, he is scheduled to have meetings with five regional groups as well as other bilateral meetings with world leaders, and he will also meet with representatives from civil society, including his Youth Advisory Group.
CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT The UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, today said that tackling the climate emergency can contribute to the protection of millions of conflict-affected children. The impact of climate change can aggravate fragilities and worsen conflict dynamics, Ms. Gamba said, adding that children are the most vulnerable group in times of crisis. She is also joining calls from other UN Officials to translate climate emergency commitments into actions, and to invest in adaptation and resilience so that children can realize their rights to grow up and to thrive in peaceful societies.
SECRETARY-GENERAL/COVID-19 In a message issued this morning on the five millionth death worldwide due to COVID-19, the Secretary-General stressed that this is not just a number on a page, but represents lives cut short by a merciless virus that respects no borders.
The Secretary-General called it a global shame that, while wealthy countries are rolling-out third doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, only about five per cent of people in Africa are fully vaccinated.
Africa are fully vaccinated. He also noted that five million deaths should also stand as a clear warning that we cannot let our guard down. We are still seeing more deaths, with overcrowded hospitals and exhausted health workers.
We also see the risk of new variants spreading and claiming more lives. He once again called on world leaders to fully support the Global Vaccination Strategy he launched with the World Health Organization (WHO) last month.
We need to get vaccines into the arms of 40 per cent of people in all countries by the end of this year and 70 per cent by mid-2022.