The Nature Conservancy’s Statement on UN Global Climate Report

Rebecca Benner, Interim Managing Director for Climate Change at The Nature Conservancy, issued the following statement following the latest climate report released today by the United Nations:

“The UN global stocktake is the first comprehensive, international report card showing how the world is progressing towards meeting legally-binding climate commitments since 2015’s landmark Paris Agreement. And what it tells us is, while that treaty has succeeded in galvanizing action to some extent, nevertheless we are not yet anywhere near where we need to be if we want to restrict global warming to +1.5C and avoid worst-case climate scenarios. We are not reducing emissions fast enough; not being transformational or equitable enough in our thinking and actions; not accelerating the clean energy transition with appropriate speed; not building sufficiently climate-resilient communities; and not making enough nature-positive investments.

“The good news is that we already know the solutions—we just need to deploy them much faster, priming the pumps of finance and technology that are already in place with renewed political will. We all knew the global stocktake would expose our current shortcomings on climate in unflinching detail. And now that we know the scale of the gap between what’s already happening and what’s actually required, let’s use this moment to redouble our efforts—working together as a global community to elevate marginalized voices, accelerate the renewables revolution, and invest in nature to sequester more carbon and reduce community vulnerabilities. Because, as the science shows, we simply can’t afford to fall further behind, given how rapidly the window of opportunity is closing.”