World leaders call for action, greater inclusion
World leaders yesterday called for more action and inclusion of all countries in the global drive towards a cleaner and greener planet at a climate summit hosted virtually by South Korea.
Climate change is a major threat to global growth, with perils ranging from declines in crop yields, extreme weather that devastates tourist economies, disease outbreaks and other catastrophes that would sap productivity.
South Korea -- which recently announced plans to cut finance for international coal projects -- is seeking a bigger role in the global initiative to go green.
"South Korea will play a responsible role as a bridging nation between developing and advanced nations," said President Moon Jae-in as he opened the 2021 Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030, or P4G, summit.
The two-day summit is the second of its kind following the inaugural meeting held in Copenhagen in 2018, and is focused on public-private partnerships, especially in developing countries.
Advanced nations have laid out ambitious emissions-cutting goals in recent months, as well as plans to ultimately go carbon neutral by 2050.
World leaders committed under the 2015 Paris accord to keeping the global temperature increase to under two degrees Celsius -- and ideally closer to 1.5C -- by 2050. Yet many countries have not even agreed on a unified rulebook governing how the Paris agreement works in practice. The UN says that emissions must fall nearly eight percent annually till 2030 to keep 1.5C in play.
World leaders also stressed the importance of making sure that poorer countries are not left out in the global initiative to go green.
African countries should not be "locked up" in fossil fuels and be able to advance with the rest of the world, said French President Emmanuel Macron, calling for ways to draw large-scale investments in renewable energy.
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