UN Chief Antonio Gueterres on Saturday called on world leaders to
declare a ‘state of climate emergency’ after the coronavirus pandemic, urging
to focus towards greener growth as he opened a summit marking five years since
the Paris Agreement, AFP reported.

The online Climate Action Summit came in context to UN’s warning regarding current
commitments to curb climate change being fairly inadequate.

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The UN Secretary-General touted the 2015 commitments made in Paris
to be ‘far from enough’.

“If we don’t change course, we may be headed for a
catastrophic temperature rise of more than 3.0 degrees this century”.

“That is why today, I call on all leaders worldwide
to declare a State of Climate Emergency in their countries until carbon
neutrality is reached,” AFP quoted Gueterres as saying.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson noted that the pandemic-stricken
year was coming to an end with the vaccines coming out soon.

“My
message to you all is that together, we can use scientific advances to protect
our planet, our biosphere against a challenge far worse, far more destructive,
than even the coronavirus pandemic,” Johnson said.

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The
countries with the most ambitious ideas to fulfil their Paris Accord promises
were given slots for speaking, including India, Honduras and Guatemala.

Significantly,
major economies such as Australia, South Africa and Brazil were not present at
the summit.