- This weekly round-up contains key nature and climate news from the past week.
- Top nature and climate stories: ‘Fossil fuel age’ has failed, says UN Secretary-General; Antarctic sea ice at record winter low; Pacific island of Niue aims to attract sponsors to conserve its ocean territory.
On 18-22 September, the World Economic Forum convened business leaders, policy-makers, civil society organizations, innovators and social entrepreneurs for the Sustainable Development Impact Meetings.
These carefully curated impact-driven leaders’ dialogues focus on ways to get the Sustainable Development Goals back on track at the halfway point of the 2030 Agenda.
1. ‘Fossil fuel age’ has failed, says UN Secretary-General
“G20 countries are responsible for 80% of greenhouse emissions. They must lead. They must break their addiction to fossil fuels,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told the UN General Assembly in New York last week.
To stand a fighting chance of combatting the climate crisis, coal, oil and gas must be phased out in a fair and equitable way, and renewables massively boosted, he told the assembly.
“The fossil fuel age has failed,” he said. “If fossil fuel companies want to be part of the solution, they must lead the transition to renewable energy.”
Guterres told world leaders at a high-level forum a day earlier that “the Sustainable Development Goals aren’t just a list of goals….
