UN chief Ban Ki Moon has cautioned at the UN climate conference in Morocco that “choices we make today might have a disastrous consequence on climate change for thousands of years.” and that All nations must work on removal of fossil fuel subsidy.
Mr Moon was speaking at the opening ceremony of mutual high-level section of the Marrakech climate talks, along with the King of Morocco.
He stressed out the scaling up of clean energy sources and said the world needs to foresee and restructure the development of their future strategies.
As the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22), members of civil society and more than 300 organizations demanded a stop to all fossil fuel mining and making an urgent switch to clean energy.
India alone splurges hundreds of billions of dollars to subsidize fossil fuels such as petrol, diesel, kerosene oil and coal. A large amount of this subsidy is meant for more than 300 million people in India who lack access to electricity.
Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General, said he expects the United Nations will carry on advocating moral interference, when necessary.
The UN chief together with Moroccan King Mohammed VI reminded the urbanized states of their fiscal commitments to developing nations by mobilizing $100 billion by 2020.
“Urbanized nations ought to offer fiscal support to developing countries, particularly in southern Africa and island states, as they are the most susceptible,” the Moroccan King said.
Ban stressed out that the world has to come up with policies to alleviate climate change assertively by 2018 and make a switch from fossil fuel to renewable energy.
“The Paris Agreement is a new dawn for global climate action. States have firmly backed the agreement in their personal national interest by pursuing the common objectives. It has to be transformed into a complete purpose to protect and defend humanity,” said Ban.
Ban Ki-moon has been part of 10 COPs, the COP22 at Marrakech being his very last before he resigns.
He praised the contribution and partnership from companies, governments and non-governmental organizations for their universal commitments and actions.
Talking of lessons he learned from his experiences, Ban asked the world to rely on science and work on mechanism to diminish emission to meet the set goals by 2020.
“The UN should continue to champion the science. Nationally Determined Contributions unaccompanied will not get us out of hazard zone but science will,” he said.
“We have no right to gamble for the upcoming generations. We have to subsidize and expand clean energy sources and redesign our atmosphere in a more resilient approach. We have to advance growth and invest in resilient methods,” Ban said.
