The jagussalon glacier lake in Iceland is naturally formed by the melting water of glaciers. Due to climate change, large pieces of sea ice are falling from the melting glaciers, and the area of the glacier lake is expanding.

On September 23, New York time, the 2019 UN climate action summit ended at the UN headquarters in New York. This climate action summit is the last large-scale meeting before the 2020 phased deadline of the Paris Agreement. Therefore, the international community also regards the summit as a particularly important week in the global climate change arena following the announcement of the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement. So why is this climate action summit so important? It turns out that with only three months to 2020, governments must demonstrate their ability to continue to improve their targets in accordance with the Paris Agreement and achieve the global blueprint of reducing emissions by 2030 and even 2050 with their achievements in reducing emissions.

All walks of life promote the summit to achieve practical results

At the end of the summit, UN Secretary General Guterres described the meeting as "witnessing the international community's ambition to tackle climate change and achieving practical results". At the meeting, a group of the world's largest asset owners (more than $2 trillion in assets) committed to invest in "carbon neutral" by 2050. In addition, 130 banks signed agreements promising to align their operations with the Paris Agreement goals and the United Nations sustainable development goals. Guterres particularly appreciates the shared commitment of small island states to achieve "carbon neutrality" and a comprehensive shift to renewable energy by 2030.

As an important international organization around the world, the United Nations also announced a new climate action plan at the meeting: it will withdraw its pension fund of US $68 billion from investing in Listed Companies in the field of coal energy, and will not invest in these companies any more.

"To control the temperature rise within 1.5C by the end of this century, the international community needs to make more efforts. Relying on existing technology to implement "technology substitution" can reduce global carbon emissions by 70%. Countries should stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry and building coal-fired power plants, shift to renewable energy, and strengthen financial support for climate change efforts. Developed countries need to ensure that by 2020, the commitment to provide developing countries with $100 billion a year in climate funding is implemented. " Guterres said.

Two days before the summit, the United Nations held its first youth climate summit at its headquarters in New York. Guterres approached hundreds of young people from all over the world and listened to their voices on climate change. He said that the participation of young people and the enthusiasm they showed were crucial to pushing governments to accelerate climate action.

"Tackling climate change requires the participation of all sectors of society, especially young people, who are eager for and deserve a place in this process. The young generation are the promoters of sustainable development, and they are also the planners, actors and innovators of turning the agenda into reality. Climate change and future development are closely related to them. " Jayathma wickramanayake, special envoy of the UN Secretary General for youth, said.

At the Youth Climate Summit, youth representatives from all over the world took the stage to express their climate action initiatives. "My hometown has never been affected by serious floods and droughts in the past. Until 2018, when the situation changed, we didn't realize that it was time to take action and can't wait any longer." Nige Roger, a 19-year-old girl from Kenya, said. At the meeting, Liu Kai, a youth representative from the all China Youth Federation, introduced the achievements of China's "action to protect the mother river" in the past 20 years. "Chinese youth are tackling climate change and promoting the construction of ecological civilization through afforestation, river protection and other actions." Liu Kai said.

Multi countries add weight to deal with climate change

At present, it is urgent to deal with climate change. Whether the world can effectively adapt to and mitigate climate change will also depend on the actual actions of governments.

At the closing press conference of the summit, Luis Alfonso de alba, special envoy of the Secretary General of the United Nations, said, "the achievements of the summit are satisfactory, but every plan still needs to be implemented. There is a long way to go to deal with climate change, and we must step up our actions."

In the face of the coming 2020, all countries are speeding up. Since this year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has led the establishment of the "climate cabinet", which is composed of Chancellor Angela Merkel, ministers of the chancellor's office and six federal ministers. Recently, the "climate cabinet" reached a consensus on "coal withdrawal", promoted carbon dioxide pricing, and passed relevant bills to support the development of coal withdrawal areas.

On September 20, the German climate cabinet made a decision on a package of measures related to climate policy, which laid a solid foundation for the Merkel authorities to promote global climate action. In addition, it also creates new and future oriented employment opportunities for the affected lignite areas, and provides specific and clear programs.

On August 28, under the leadership of the climate cabinet, Merkel passed the draft of the structural strengthening law, which supports the structural transformation of coal returning areas and balances the transformation pressure. The relevant investment will total 40 billion euros by 2038.

Merkel said that Germany's climate protection policy must consider three goals at the same time: to maintain Germany's competitiveness as an industrial power; to achieve the climate goal; to keep the cost of living, especially the cost of energy, affordable for citizens.

Source: China Environmental News