Countries come together to set the strategy to adapt to the worst effects of climate change by 2030

The Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, opened the Climate Adaptation Summit (CAS) on Monday to promote a roadmap with practical solutions to adapt to the effects of climate change that are already being observed, such as floods, droughts or migrations.

Rutte, host of the multilateral meeting attended by world leaders, prime ministers, representatives of multilateral organizations, NGOs, scientists and academia, among others, has warned that climate change “is happening” and affects the lives of “hundreds of millions of people” and, while the planet faces COVID-19, it is necessary to continue adapting to climate change.

“Today it’s about action; to discuss how to recover better, stronger and get out of this crisis together,” he said. The Dutch prime minister considers it necessary to achieve more resilient infrastructure and improve disaster risk management, especially in the most vulnerable countries and populations and has ensured that his country is already ensuring that its cooperation aid is based in equal parts on mitigation and adaptation. In that sense, it wants countries to increase their funding and accelerate their action in this area.
The event presented the strategies of different countries to achieve a “resilient future in 2030” and throughout this Monday and Tuesday they will share to launch a global adaptation agenda for this decade.

In his speech, former United Nations Secretary Ban Ki Moon praised the power of global collaboration that has been demonstrated in the coronavirus pandemic and that is why he insisted that adaptation and mitigation go hand in hand to build a better future, especially for the most vulnerable.

Ban took advantage of the meeting to congratulate the president of the United States, Joe Biden, for returning “again” to the Paris Agreement against climate change. “For the last four years we have not been able to collaborate and now we will return with that spirit of collaboration,” he said.

He also outlined the pillars of the summit, which are based on increased ambition and objectives, the search for greater resource mobilization and collaboration to protect the most vulnerable. “We have a golden opportunity to recover from this health and economic crisis,” said Ban, recalling the “fundamental moral responsibility” of global leaders to “change the world.”

In the same vein, the current SECRETARY General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, has criticized that countries are not going “fast enough” in adaptation and has stressed the importance of the concept “resilience”. In his opinion, COVID has shown that you can not continue doing things “as before” since there is a climate emergency with “terrible” results for the environment.

Thus, he recalled the 11,000 natural disasters of recent years that have ended the lives of more than 450,000 people. “We must develop and create new tools to improve our economies in an inclusive and resilient way,” he added.

Guterres called for more investment in adaptation and resilience for developing countries and recalled that the objectives of the Paris Agreement on mitigation and adaptation of the effects of climate change in developing countries must be met to create tools. “Every dollar that is invested in this, 6 are saved,” said Guterres, who laments the difficulty of these countries to access financing.

“Supporting climate adaptation is a moral and social imperative. We must collaborate not only with early warning systems. There is more to do,” he appealed, while ensuring that there are the tools to act now and be faster and more effective.

USA IS BACK

The event has become a warm welcome to the United States as it returns to international climate action following the handover of powers in the White House last week. Joe Biden’s new administration’s own special climate envoy, John Kerry, has apologized for the years of absence and said it is “a pride” and “a pleasure” to return.

“The United States has not been there these years, but we have had to invest billions to cover the damage caused by hurricanes and cyclones. It is much less expensive to invest to avoid these situations,” he reflected.

In that sense, he has assured that for President Biden adaptation to climate change is “one of the most important priorities” and knows that it is necessary to mobilize “in a way never seen before” resources to avoid that this can not be controlled. “The United States is back to the Paris Agreement and we will do everything we can to make the results of COP26 ambitious,” he promised.

In the meeting different representatives such as Chancellor Angela Merkel, or the presidents and senior representatives of Ghana, Kenya, Marshall Islands, India, China or Bangladesh have presented their initiatives, considerations and claims on adaptation.

For his part, the president of Chile, Sebastián Piñeira, has stated that he does not believe that there is any generation that has had to fight against a pandemic against Covid and, at the same time, against climate change. “This is the time of our life and it is affecting human beings on our planet. If we do nothing this will destroy our planet. Some people have a skeptical attitude but we have too much information to remain so,” he said.

The host of the virtual multilateral summit has insisted that it is “imperative and urgent” to act now and has defended that the least developed countries and in particular the African continent, as well as the youngest are the least to blame for this situation but are the most “seriously affected”.

Boris Johnson has also announced a new coalition on adaptation that the United Kingdom will launch with countries such as Bangladesh, Egypt, Malawi, the Netherlands and the United Nations that will contribute to establishing a resilience agenda before the Glasgow Climate Summit (COP26).

French President Emanuel Macron has highlighted the importance of caring for people and has appealed to the spirit of the Paris Agreement to increase ambition and solidarity. “It is our collective and individual responsibility,” he said.

The French representative insisted that it is necessary to “rethink” infrastructure, roads, ports, sea level rise and other extreme events, as well as the increase in temperature and the changes that this causes in ecosystems.

For his part, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, representing Pope Francis, has affirmed that fighting climate change and adaptation is a “moral imperative” and hopes that the summit will result in “fruitful” results.

“Although the poor are the least responsible for global change, they are the most likely to suffer its effects. Let us make this climate change proposal an opportunity for employment. We know that we have the freedom, intelligence and technology to lead progress to a more human, social and integral one,” he said.

Finally, the Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, believes that adaptation “does not mean giving up but continuing to fight” against a threat to the survival of the human being. He announced that the EU wants to present an adaptation strategy in the coming month in which cooperation will be a priority issue.

Source: Europe Press