Following alarming UN report on climate crisis, Small Islands Alliance called for “saving their future”

Dozens of little ones Island states Following vulnerable to the effects of climate change they called on the world to save their “own future” after a landmark UN report said accelerating global warming and rising sea levels threaten their existence.

The call to action comes after the Climate report warns catastrophic global warming is happening much faster than expected, an assessment greeted with concern and hope by world leaders and environmental groups.

“We must turn the tide“said Diann Black-Layne, chief climate negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda.

“The harsh reality is that if we continue to warm to 1.5 ° C, we face a sea level rise of half a meter. But if we prevent the warming from reaching 2C, we can prevent a sea level rise of three meters in the long run. This is our future, right there”.

The group consists of 39 states, including Cuba, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea and the Maldives, the lowest country in the world.

In addition, they indicated that Governments around the world must take decisive action limit warming to the 2015 Paris Agreement target of 1.5 ° C.

The report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released on Monday, says the world is on track to reach that level by 2030, a decade earlier than expected just three years ago. This level of global warming will have devastating effects on humanity, including more extreme weather events such as fires, typhoons, droughts and floods.

In its first major scientific assessment since 2014, the IPCC said that by mid-century, the 1.5 ° C threshold will have been exceeded across the board, by a tenth of a degree on the most ambitious trajectory. , and by almost a full degree in the opposite extreme.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion and deforestation are “”suffocate our planet and put billions of people in immediate danger“And said countries must” join forces “to avoid disaster.

Many world leaders responded to the report by calling for immediate action to curb rising global temperatures.

However, Australia’s conservative prime minister on Tuesday rejected growing calls to adopt more ambitious emissions targets, while China insisted it was implementing its climate commitments and did not signal new policies. despite the findings of the report.

(With information from AFP)

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