Greater Ambition in Mitigation, Finance, Technology Key to Defeating Climate Change, Secretary-General Says as Conference of Parties Concludes

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks, delivered by Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, at the twenty-fourth Conference of the Parties to the Convention, in Katowice, Poland, today:

I’d first like to thank the presidency of the Conference of the Parties for the enormous efforts it deployed to organize this twenty-fourth session in Katowice, Poland.

I also want to acknowledge the tireless work of Patricia Espinosa, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well as of her staff throughout this session.  And I, of course, want to thank all Member States for their commitment and dedication which was once again demonstrated through countless long hours of work here during the last few days.

Katowice has shown once more the resilience of the Paris Agreement — our solid road map for climate action.

The approval of the Paris Agreement Work Programme is the basis for a transformative process which will require strengthened ambition from the international community.  Science has clearly shown that we need enhanced ambition to defeat climate change.

From now on, my five priorities will be:  ambition, ambition, ambition, ambition and ambition.

Ambition in mitigation.  Ambition in adaptation.  Ambition in finance. Ambition in technical cooperation and capacity-building.  Ambition in technological innovation.  Ambition will be at the centre of the Climate Summit that I will convene in September 2019.

And ambition must guide all Member States as they prepare their nationally determined contributions for 2020 to reverse the present trend in which climate change is still running faster than us.

It is our duty to reach for more and I count on all of you to raise ambitions so that we can beat back climate change.