New York, United States – The High-Level Event on Climate Action and the Just Transition \u2013 a final initiative of outgoing Secretary-General Guterres who has made climate a key element of his legacy \u2013 is a crucial moment to consolidate a response to the global climate and energy crises. <\/p>\n\n
Ahead of the annual UN climate conference COP31 in T\u00fcrkiye and the biennial UN biodiversity conference COP17 in Armenia, Greenpeace is calling for governments to accelerate action towards the commitments agreed at COP28 in Dubai to transition away from fossil fuels and to end forest destruction by 2030. <\/p>\n\n
Jasper Inventor, Deputy Programme Director, Greenpeace International said: <\/strong>\u201cWe are overshooting our climate limits while fossil fuel companies are overflowing with profits. As those most responsible for the climate crisis continue to cash in, this year\u2019s repeated disasters pose a clear question: will politicians finally end the industry\u2019s destruction? Talk is cheap, but life is priceless and our climate stability is disintegrating the longer we delay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \u201cThe answer is not found in discord or division, but urgent collective action for our mutual benefit. Governments must develop and implement national roadmaps that accelerate a fast, fair and funded just transition into renewable energy and ensure we hold fossil fuel polluters and forest destroyers to account for the destruction they\u2019ve caused.\u201d An Lambrechts, Biodiversity Policy Expert, Greenpeace International said:<\/strong> \u201cThe devastating wildfires this year must finally compel us to act with the urgency we need to protect high integrity forests and end forest destruction by 2030, as agreed at COP28 and as part of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.\u201d Rebecca Newsom, Global Political Lead, Greenpeace International said: <\/strong>\u201cWe are united with one simple demand: make the wealthiest polluters pay for the damage they cause. People are fed up with paying for a crisis they didn’t create, hit by fossilflation at the pump, the checkout, on insurance and in the climate damage communities are confronted with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \u201cFossil fuel profits are soaring off the back of the war on Iran. Permanently increasing taxes on them and shifting fiscal incentives towards renewables should be obvious for any government serious about a just transition and ensuring Global South countries get the public international climate finance they\u2019re owed. The money is there, it just needs to be put into the right hands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n ENDS<\/p>\n\n Photo and video available in the Greenpeace Media Library<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Enough is enough: over 2 million petition signatures at UNGA to Make Polluters Pay<\/a><\/p>\n\n Contacts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Aaron Gray-Block, Greenpeace International, Climate Politics Communications Manager, aaron.gray-block@greenpeace.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n
Greenpeace is urging leaders to embark on a robust multilateral response to the escalating climate threat after the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) warned earlier in September the world had failed to limit warming to the Paris Agreement 1.5\u00b0C threshold as it outlined an \u201covershoot, peak and decline\u201d pathway. <\/p>\n\n
\u201cThese 2030 targets are not only aspirational, they represent a hard climate and biodiversity boundary. But as forest and ecosystem loss continue on our rapidly heating planet, these wildfires risk becoming a testament to our collective failure to act.\u201d
\u201cThe Brazil COP30 Presidency\u2019s Forest Roadmap creates the momentum for solutions to be put in place. What\u2019s required is clear government action and deliverables to end and reverse forest destruction by 2030 . A future world of 1.5\u00b0C hinges on defending forests now and in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n