PM Imran Khan to speak at global climate summit, marking 5 years of Paris accord

UNITED NATIONS: A number of world leaders, including Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, will address the Climate Ambition Summit on Saturday (Dec. 12) to mark the fifth anniversary of the signing of the landmark Paris Agreement, as the United Nations warns that current commitments to tackle rises in global temperatures are inadequate.

The UN, Britain and France are co-hosting the summit, which will be held online.

Speakers will deliver short video messages, with organizers saying they will announce "new and ambitious climate change commitments" and there will be "no space for general statements".

Apart Prime from Minister Khan, who is the 7th speaker, co-convenors UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron, as well as China's President Xi Jinping, Italian Prime Minister of Giuseppe Conte , Chilean President Sebastian Pinera and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be speaking at the summit.

An official statement said that the summit will be highlighting the fast-growing coalition of countries, cities, regions, businesses and investors committing to net-zero emissions and boosting ambition in climate finance, and resilience and adaptation.

More than 110 countries have already committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

"The Summit is a major step on the road to the next UN Climate Conference, COP26, which will be hosted by the UK next November in Glasgow," the statement said, adding that it will provide leaders with a global platform to showcase commitments to tackle climate change.

The Summit will also be giving a platform to business, sub-national governments and civil society, including youth, indigenous and faith-based climate champions.

The Paris accord, adopted in 2015, and signed a year later, is designed to boost greenhouse-gas-emissions mitigation worldwide. Its main goals include keeping the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and efforts to limit warming to 1.5 degrees in a bid to reduce the impact and risks of climate change.

The summit comes as European Union leaders on Friday committed to the goal of reducing emissions by 55 per cent by 2030, compared to 1990 levels.

The last five years have been the warmest on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization, a UN agency, with concern at rising numbers of wildfires, storms and flooding.

The UN has said that the drop in emissions due to the global coronavirus pandemic is too small to halt the rising temperatures.

The United States, the world's second-largest polluter after China, left the Paris Agreement under President Donald Trump who questioned the accepted science behind climate change.

Incoming US climate envoy John Kerry plans immediately to re-enter the accord and President-elect Joe Biden has set a goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.