UN climate chief highlights progress at COP30, urges intensified efforts

Belem (Brazil), Nov 20 (IANS) UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell has highlighted advances achieved under the COP30 Action Agenda on climate change and stressed the urgency of turning commitments into concrete actions.

“The world is watching and willing climate cooperation to hold firm in a fractured world,” Stiell said at the Global Climate Action High-Level Closing Event on Wednesday (local time), which was held on November 11-19 during the COP30, stressing the importance of the agenda as a driver of change.

In his remarks, Stiell, the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, outlined significant achievements made at the COP30, or the 30th UN Climate Change Conference, which is being held in Brazil’s Amazon city of Belem. The conference opened on November 10 and will run through November 21, with climate negotiations currently in the final stage.

“COP30 has racked up an impressive scorecard of real-world climate actions that will also mean stronger economies, more jobs and better lives for many millions,” he said.

Stiell pointed to major clean-energy and grid investments, a global plan to quadruple sustainable fuels, efforts to unlock new green industries and an expanding pipeline of climate-adaptation funding, reports Xinhua news agency.

He stressed that transformation is also visible in national climate plans, where whole-of-economy and whole-of-society approaches are taking shape — something “unthinkable only a few years ago.”

“But this is no moment for self-congratulations — this is the moment to step up. To strive for measurable, real-world results for people, for economies and for the planet,” he said, and urged efforts to “deliver results fast, fairly, and at scale.”

Stiell also noted that the alignment of the climate action agenda with COP30 negotiations is important, saying the agenda helps design climate plans rooted in practical solutions that cut emissions and strengthen resilience.

To help translate commitments into action, COP30 action agenda has prioritised 30 objectives covering climate mitigation, adaptation and means of implementation, in major areas including transitioning energy, industry and transport, stewarding forests, oceans and biodiversity, and transforming agriculture and food systems.

–IANS

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