Razan Al Mubarak urged decisive climate action by the private sector, local governments and civil society at the Bonn Climate Change Conference this week. Held from 5-15 June, the event is part of the formal United Nations negotiations on climate and marks an important stop on the road to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) which will take place in the UAE this December. 

As the UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP28, Ms. Al Mubarak is working to inspire and unite non-state actors to do their part. Ms. Al Mubarak said:

“This is a decisive decade for tackling climate change. It is about asking ourselves how much we are prepared to do now to secure a safe, healthy, prosperous future for ourselves and our children. To avoid the most painful and costly climate change impacts, we must halve global emissions by 2030. We are far off track but it is still not too late to act in a meaningful way.”

Coming out ahead of COP28, the Global Stocktake report is expected to show that the world is lagging in implementing the Paris Agreement and achieving its goal to limit human-induced warming to 1.5˚C above pre-industrial levels.

As President of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Ms. Al Mubarak highlighted the importance of nature-based solutions, saying that “there will be no resilient, net-zero future without halting and restoring nature loss.” She also mentioned that all efforts to protect nature and biodiversity and boost climate resilience need to be inclusive, saying:

“An emergency of this kind requires a solution that embraces and uses talent from the whole of society. Alongside government action, we need a groundswell of action by businesses, cities, non-governmental organizations, indigenous peoples, youth and women.”

Read more about the work of the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions at the Bonn Climate Change Conference.