UNFCCC chief warns "the door is closing fast" unless rapid action is taken
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Christina Figueres making the opening address of the Climate Change Conference in Doha
In the last three years, policy and action towards a sustainable, clean energy future has been growing faster than ever. That's what the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFCCC Christina Figueres told a press conference in Doha on Monday.
Speaking shortly after the opening of the Climate Change Conference, Ms. Figueres said it was very clear that over the past years, there had more action on the ground- be it through investment in renewables or domestic policy legislation, there had been more international policy progress than over the past 10 years.
However, she said the other reality is that the door is closing fast because the pace and scale of action is simply not yet where it must be.
She stressed that there are three clear goals that governments have set themselves for the Doha meeting.
"First, a renewed commitment under the Kyoto Protocol. The second very clear objective that governments have set for themselves is the march towards universal agreement from 2020 which needs to be adopted by 2015 and at the same time to increase ambition not in 2015 or 2020…and thirdly to speed up technical and financial support to developing nations to move what started as the Bali Action Plan to move that plan into action."
Ms. Figueres said that an important set of reports published shortly before Doha, all pointed to the urgency to act to keep global average temperatures from rising beyond an internationally agreed level of 2 degrees Celsius beyond which, she warned, climate impacts become extremely serious.
Donn Bobb, United Nations
Duration: 1'40"
