BONN (Sputnik) — Nineteen ground-braking initiatives addressing climate change, as well as wide economic and social issues, have been selected as practical examples of what people, governments and business are doing to tackle climate change.
Speaking at the closing ceremony, Unilever CEO and member of the Climate Action Leadership Network Paul Polman emphasized that the international community should accelerate the fulfillment of the agenda for sustainable development in order to achieve the Paris Agreement's goals for 2030 and 2050.
"In order to be on the path we need to have renewable electricity in about 30 percent of our global supply chain, it also means no coal, it means increasing energy efficiency across the economy by 3 percent per year, 15-20 percent of new cars need to be electric or zero emission cars by 2020, we have to cut the rate of deforestation, every heavy industry sector must have a Paris compliment plan, 100 billion [US dollars] per year in financing to be mobilized, we need to see tenfold increase in the price of green bonds to help finance that," he said.
Mary Robinson, the president of the Mary Robinson Foundation-Climate Justice, called for solidarity among COP23 participants.
"We need solidarity. It has been fractured by identity, by anti-migrant issues, by anti-Muslim issues, but we need to go forward strongly with that sense of solidarity because no country can combat climate change on its own and every country would be affected more and more if we don't act with solidarity," she said.
A five-day Global Climate Action program, which demonstrated how cites, regions, businesses and financial institutions work together with the governments to implement the Paris Agreement, included over 100 events showcasing actions in core thematic areas such as energy, water, land use, oceans and coastal zones, human settlements, transport and industry.
