New York City, US – From Libya to Greece, Hawaii to China and beyond, the impacts of climate change are being felt on every continent leading to rising death tolls, ruined livelihoods and nature destruction. Despite hundreds of thousands mobilising around the world demanding urgent climate action, the major emitters of greenhouse gas emissions are still not acting with "whole of government" approaches, which the climate emergency demands.
For the Climate Ambition Summit, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres made clear this was a meeting for "first movers and doers" and the price of entry was "credible, serious and new climate action" that moves the needle forward and responds to the urgency of the climate crisis.
Speaking from inside the UN, Greenpeace International Executive Director, Mads Christensen, said: "Leaders from the world's worst polluting countries largely rebuffed or ignored the UN Secretary-General's challenge to bring something worthy of being included in the Climate Ambition Summit. It's like a rich CEO wanting to board a train and not pay the fare because they think they're above it. In this time of catastrophic planetary crisis, this climate inaction by these leaders is not just disrespectful, it's fatal and must be called out. Everyone has skin in the climate game, but most of the G20 major emitters and Norway didn't step up. Shame on you."
"The Climate Ambition Summit did see some modest progress, which Greenpeace welcomes, but for the world, these pledges don't go the distance and we remain at full speed on the highway to climate hell. Leaders of the biggest emitting countries need to accept the fossil fuel age has failed. Governments leave New York with a big urgent job to do to end new developments of fossil fuels at home and reach agreement on a fossil fuel phase out at COP28. They can and must usher in a fossil fuel free future for all – if not, we will be holding them accountable on the streets, in the courts and at COP28," added Flarup Christensen.
