Boris Johnson calls UNSC meet over climate change and its impact on world peace

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC)  will be holding a summit of world leaders on Tuesday to debate climate change and its implications for world peace, an issue on which all its 15 members have divergent opinions. The session has been called by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and will be conducted by video-conference. Moreover, it comes just days after the United States President Joe Biden formally rejoined the Paris climate accord of 2015.

Currently, Britain holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council and the UK Prime Minister will be addressing the forum along with US climate czar John Kerry, French President Emmanuel Macron, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the prime ministers of Ireland, Vietnam, Norway and other countries, diplomats have reportedly said.

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Global leaders applaud US’ formal return

While Biden told the virtual gathering of European leaders Friday that the world “can no longer delay or do the bare minimum to address climate change,” the world leaders hailed the US’ return to Paris accord. As per reports, they also said that they expect the US to show leadership in the battle against global warming by setting strong targets for carbon pollution cuts by 2030. Biden rejoining America formally to the climate accord came after the Trump administration abandoned the agreement in 2019 that took effect in November 2020.

Laurence Tubiana, France’s Climate Change Ambassador and Special Representative for COP21 and CEO of the European Climate Foundation hailed the US re-entry but added a note of caution that “the climate crisis is deepening”. Stressing that they did not have “time to celebrate”, she said that the climate crisis was deepening adding that they needed all major polluters to deliver plans for a safe, clean and prosperous future. “The US needs to come to COP26 with a strong commitment: the urgency of the crisis is clear, and this means a new US target of at least 50% GHG cuts on 2005 levels by 2030, ideally more,” she told media reporters.

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