Negotiators from nearly 200 countries will meet in Bonn on Monday for climate negotiations intended to put global warming back on track as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine overshadows the threat of rising emissions.
Patricia Espinosa, whose second term as head of the UN Climate Office ends this year, was speaking at the start of a ten-day gathering in Bonn attended by diplomats from around the world to discuss the 10 international climate summit in Copenhagen
But as it stands, the world will hardly be able to meet the Paris climate accord’s commit to keeping warming “significantly below” 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
But they remain, overall, far short of what is needed to limit global warming to the end of this century from pre-industrial times to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
“We must never give in to despair,” Espinosa said, joining with a chorus of scientists and politicians who reject ends-of-world thinking.
Many of the central issues that delegates will try to address in Bonn will be focused, in the coming days, on financial assistance to poor countries struggling with the consequences of climate change.
Espinosa made clear that she hopes leaders will provide their lawmakers with the support they need to quickly agree on what they want to call “balanced package”
Officials from the Group of 46 Least Developed Countries called for major polluters like China and the United States to reduce their emissions by even greater means and to make up for the damage that climate change has already wrought.
