Sir David Attenborough’s summit plea: ‘Catch up with climate change or it will end us’
Sir David Attenborough has told world leaders at the UN climate conference in Katowice that our civilisations will collapse without urgent action.
Famed naturalist and documentary maker Sir David Attenborough has said the world is facing a man-made disaster of global scale.
Addressing world leaders at the UN climate conference in Katowice, Poland, Sir David said without action the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world was on the horizon.
Launching a multi media site for the convention, Sir David said people were willing to make sacrifices in their daily lives recognising they too must play their part.
In his opening address to the conference, UN Secretary General, António Guterres, said “for many people, regions and even countries this is already a matter of life and death.”
“Climate change is running faster than we are and we must catch up sooner rather than later before it is too late,” he said.
Mr Guterres said the Katowice conference was the most important gathering on climate change since the Paris Agreement was signed three years ago.
“We need a complete transformation of our global energy economy, as well as how we manage land and forest resources,” Mr Guterres said.
“We need to embrace low-carbon, climate-resilient sustainable development,” he said.
Mr Guterres said he had four simple messages for those attending to negotiate a rule book to bring the Paris Agreement to life.
First; science demands a significantly more ambitious response.
Second; The Paris Agreement provides a framework for action.
Third; There was a collective responsibility to invest in averting global climate chaos, to consolidate the financial commitments made in Paris and to assist the most vulnerable communities and nations.
And Fourth; climate action offers a compelling path to transform our world for the better.
Mr Guterres said the latest UN Environment Programme Emissions Gap Report had said the current Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement would lead to global warming of about 3 degrees by the end of the century.
The majority of countries most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions were behind in their efforts to meet their Paris pledges.
Providing finance for the transition was crucial, Mr Guterres said.
“We need transformative climate action in five key economic areas – energy, cities, land use, water and industry,” Mr Guterres said.
He said 75 per cent of the infrastructure needed by 2050 still remained to be built.
“How this is done will either lock us in to a high-emissions future or steer us towards truly sustainable low-emissions development,” Mr Guterres said.
“Governments and investors need to bet on the green economy, not the grey,” he said.
“That means embracing carbon pricing, eliminating harmful fossil fuel subsidies and investing in clean technologies,” Mr Guterres said.
“It also means providing a fair transition for those workers in traditional sectors that face disruption, including through retraining and social safety nets.”
Proceedings were injected with a shot of glamour as former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger addressed delegates.
At a roundtable event later Monday, Schwarzenegger was asked what he would most wish for.
“I wish that I could be The Terminator in real life to be able to travel back in time and to stop all fossil fuels when theywere discovered,” said the former movie tough guy.
Attenborough issued a plea for action on behalf of humanity: “If we don’t take action the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon”.
Frank Bainimarama, prime minister of Fiji and president of last year’s COP, said developed nations must act before countriessuch has his are consumed by the waves.
“Or, God forbid, (we) ignore the irrefutable evidence and become the generation that betrayed humanity,” he said.
— Additional reporting by AFP
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