Leaders gathered for nine days of climate talks. It took them eight to agree on an agenda
ByNick O'Malley
June 16, 2023 — 3.55pm
Of all the world’s leaders, it is the United Nations’ Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who has come to speak with the most force on our failure to rise to the threat of climate change, and so it was when he spoke as the Bonn Climate Change Conference came to a close this week.
“I see a lack of ambition, a lack of trust, a lack of support, a lack of co-operation and an abundance of problems around clarity and credibility,” he said in a speech made in New York on Wednesday that was aimed directly at Bonn, where 8000 people had gathered for the last major climate talks before this year’s COP28 conference in the United Arab Emirates.
“Countries are far off track in meeting climate promises and commitments.
“The climate agenda is being undermined. At a time when we should be accelerating action, there is backtracking. At a time when we should be filling gaps, those gaps are growing,” he said.
It is not surprising that Guterres was so blunt.
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/leaders-gathered-for-nine-days-of-climate-talks-it-took-them-eight-to-agree-on-an-agenda-20230616-p5dh1h.html
