Secretary Locsin in UN Meeting: "Time for Climate Action is Now"

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. speaks before the United Nations General Assembly High-Level meeting on Climate Change and Sustainable Development for All held on 29 March 2019 at the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York. In his statement, Secretary Locsin emphasizes the need for global climate action to address climate change. (UN photo by Manuel Elias)

30 March 2019 – Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. calls for immediate action on addressing climate issues at the United Nations High-Level Meeting on Climate and Sustainable Development for All held on 29 March 2019 at the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York.

“If climate action does not measure up to what is needed, we all face the same fate of diminished existence or extinction altogether,” he said.

Secretary Locsin stressed that climate change is happening, its effects as bad as anticipated and faster than estimated. He noted that while the Philippines has put in place effective programs for more accurate and integrated disaster anticipation, prevention and adaptation in order to cope with climate change, what is needed is action by the major carbon-emitting countries.

“If the most capable and able will not do more to slow and halt climate change, most will eventually stop talking about it and let climate change run its full and fatal course: in the desertification or inundation of our planet; the starvation and extinction of populations; and the end of everything worthwhile attained by human ingenuity,” the Secretary added.

The theme of the meeting was Climate Protection for All: Protection of the Global Climate for Present and Future Generations of Humankind in the context of the Economic, Social and Environmental Dimensions of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”

It was convened by the President of the 73rd Session of the General Assembly, Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, to highlight interlinkages between climate and the Sustainable Development Goals and to promote an intergenerational approach to climate action.

Addessing the meeting were UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa, Fiji Prime Minister Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama, and the Presidents of the UNFCCC’s Conference of Parties: Polish Environment Minister Michal Kurtyka and Chile Environment Minister Carolina Schmidt. END