Children fleeing home with parents from drought eat biscuits after arriving at the Internal Displaced Person (IDP) camp in Doolow, a border town with Ethiopia, Somalia, March 20, 2017. (Xinhua/Sun Ruibo)
Guterres cited climate disasters from rising seas to acidifying oceans, from melting glaciers to bleaching corals, from spreading droughts to burning wildfires, from scorching heatwaves to intense storms, saying "this is not a climate negotiation summit because we don't negotiate with nature."
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday urged concrete action at the Climate Action Summit that he convened amid a worsening climate crisis.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the summit, Guterres said, "This is not a climate talk summit. We have had enough talk. This is not a climate negotiation summit because we don't negotiate with nature."
"From the beginning, I said the ticket to entry is not a beautiful speech, but concrete action," he added.
A woman bowls out the unclean water from a hole in a riverbed near Doolow, a border town with Ethiopia, Somalia, March 20, 2017. (Xinhua/Sun Ruibo)
Guterres cited climate disasters from rising seas to acidifying oceans, from melting glaciers to bleaching corals, from spreading droughts to burning wildfires, from scorching heatwaves to intense storms.
In tackling the climate change, he said, "Technology is on our side. Readily-available technological substitutions already exist for more than 70 percent of today's emissions."
He called for stopping "subsidizing a dying fossil fuel industry and building more and more coal power plants."
Two members of the fourth Chinese scientific expedition team collect water sample from the melting pond on ice at 88 degrees north latitude, Aug. 20, 2010. (Xinhua/Zhang Jiansong)
He also urged accelerating financial support for climate efforts, including the replenishment of the Green Climate Fund, fulfilling the commitment by developed countries to mobilize 100 billion U.S. dollars a year from public and private sources by 2020 for mitigation and adaptation in developing countries.
Stressing the importance of adaptation, he said even if the world succeeds in reducing emissions, many people are already living with the dramatic effects of climate change. Adaptation has therefore become a top priority and an essential condition for increasing the resilience of countries and communities and avoiding human suffering.
