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UN Chief: Climate change "threat" to SDGs "not a question of opinion"
24.03.2017 08:02 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) —
As of yesterday, while speaking within a High-Level SDG Action event in New York, convened by the UN General Assembly, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said climate change is an «unprecedented and growing threat» to «peace, prosperity» and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), UN Radio reports.
As to the report, Guterres said that he had two «simple messages» to deliver, namely that the threat posed by climate change could undermine the entire 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, agreed by 193 countries, and that addressing it was «a massive opportunity we cannot afford to reject.»
He said that the global warming trend was «indisputable» as was the fact that human activity was causing temperatures to rise to dangerous levels.
The UN chief pointed to rising food insecurity due to drought, along with economic insecurity and water insecurity; all elevating the risk of conflict.
As to Guterres, this is why «military minds» around the world take climate change seriously, with direct consequences for «peace and security».
But the movement towards a «green economy» represents a tremendous opportunity, he added, in renewable energy, and the public-private drive for greater energy efficiency.
Climate action is essential, Guterres concluded.
«How we go about it can be the subject of scientific and political debate. But there is no question that we must act, urgently and decisively, now,» he stressed.
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