Climate action remained as urgent as ever
Earth Day 2020
UNEP: Why Earth Day is more important than ever
22 April is Earth Day. While the coronavirus (COVID-19) has been spreading around the world and dominating news headlines, thoughts and attention, the need to take climate action has remained as urgent as ever.
By the end of 2020, global CO2 emissions need to have dropped by 7.6 per cent and continue to fall by 7.6 per cent each year for us to have kept global heating under 1.5oC, according to the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report 2019.
Earth day 2020 is not just the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, but also the anniversary of the signing of the Paris Agreement to take climate action.
The pandemic is a stark reminder of the vulnerability of humans and the planet in the face of global scale threats. Unchecked damage to our environment must be addressed. In his response to the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19, United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres noted that, “Had we been further advanced in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, we could better face this challenge.”
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