Global conference in Dublin calls for actions on climate crisis

DUBLIN, May 20 (Xinhua) -- Dublin Climate Dialogues, a two-day online global conference on climate change, concluded here on Thursday with a declaration calling on world leaders to take faster and more forceful actions at the 26th United Nations (UN) climate change conference, abbreviated as COP26.

The declaration was handed over virtually by Pat Cox, former president of the European Parliament from Ireland, on behalf of the organizers of the conference, to John Murton, the United Kingdom's COP26 Envoy responsible for coordinating the UK diplomacy in relation to COP26, which will be hosted by the UK in partnership with Italy in Glasgow of Scotland in November.

The declaration highlighted the impact of climate change on humanity, stressed the urgency to address the crisis and put forward four-point recommendations in dealing with the problem.

"With more greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere and global temperature rising faster than at any time in human history, we are conducting an unprecedented experiment with the only home we have, our planet," said the declaration, adding that while it is welcome to see that many countries are committing to net-zero emissions and advancing plans to decarbonize their economies, the overall pace of change to date has been inadequate to meet the scale of the challenge.

"As organizers of the Dublin Climate Dialogues, we have issued this Declaration as a distillation of the collective wisdom which emerged from our deliberations and as an input to the wider debate in the run up to COP26 in November 2021," said Pat Cox, who chaired the dialogues.

Jointly organized by University College Dublin and Mainstream Renewable Power, an Irish renewable energy company with a global footprint, and with the support from the Irish government, the dialogues brought together nearly 60 speakers from over a dozen countries.

They included senior government officials, business leaders, experts and scholars from the United States, China, Italy, the UK, France, Japan, Chile, Barbados and Ireland as well as senior representatives from international organizations such as the United Nations, the European Union, International Energy Agency, World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Topics discussed at the dialogues ranged from the impact and cost of current and future damage of climate change to the benefits of an accelerated global decarbonisation pathway as well as the role of the private sector in effecting the transformation, including financing the transition to sustainability.

John Kerry, the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, delivered a pre-recorded speech to the conference.

In a speech at the conference, Li Junfeng, Chairman of Academic Committee of China's National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, briefed the participants about the latest efforts made by China in dealing with the climate change issues.

China has committed to the world that it will reach a carbon peak before 2030 and achieve a carbon neutral status before 2060. Enditem