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United Nations publishes new environmental report
29 marzo 2019

SUSTAINABILITY

Climate change. On March 13, the United Nations (UN) presented the sixth edition of Global Environment Outlook‘ (GEO-6), amid its Fourth Assembly for the Environment held in Nairobi (Kenya). The report calls for action to halt and reverse the impact of climate change on the environment. At the event, Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary General of the UN, spoke of the damaging effects of human productive activities. UN Secretary General António Guterres, meanwhile, reminded those present of the upcoming climate summit in New York in September, urging world leaders who will attend it to come armed with concrete proposals and not mere speeches.   

Mohammed stated that “not a single region of the world was spared the effects of climate change“, with 2018 registered as the fourth warmest year in history. During the assembly, Mohammed reflected that “we are at a turning point for our planet” and he sought innovative solutions to the three main environmental challenges of unsustainable consumption, loss of biodiversity and the impact of global warming. “We know that 53% of emissions are caused by the extraction and processing of resources and in 2018 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change already said that we only have 12 years to change course, otherwise we will suffer irreversible consequences,” concluded the Vice Secretariat.

GEO-6 was developed by a team of 250 specialists, who came to the conclusion that antimicrobial resistance will become one of the leading causes of death by 2050 – due to freshwater pollution. In addition, its content warns that the world is not on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 or even by 2050, so the scientists involved warn that “urgent action is required, since any delay in climate action will increase the cost to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement or reverse the progress achieved so far”.

As for food, the document recommends adopting less meat-intensive diets and reducing food waste. This way, a 50% increase in food production would not be necessary to feed the nearly ten billion people who will inhabit the world by 2050. Currently, 33% of the world’s food is wasted and 56% of this waste is generated in industrialized countries. The report also calls for action to curb the flow of eight million tonnes of plastic waste into the oceans each year, as there is still no global agreement to address the problem.

Next steps

To address this situation, the UN Secretary General (António Guterres) has convened a meeting of world leaders – which will take place in September 2019 in New York. The goal is to create a contingency plan, given that the Paris Agreement is not enough to stop climate change. Guterres aims to “reduce emissions by 45% over the next decade and reach the goal of zero net emissions by 2050”. The plan should decarbonize electricity, build more sustainable infrastructure and cities, create decent green jobs, and bring the entire population together.

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