Environment

Merkel calls for greater climate ambition ahead of major summit

Berlin, May 6 (EFE).- German chancellor Angela Merkel Thursday called on world leaders to show more ambition in the fight against the climate crisis.

Environment ministers and world leaders are meeting in Berlin at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, an informal forum hosted by Germany to prepare for the COP26 summit in Glasgow in November.

“We all want Glasgow to be a success,” Merkel said, adding that “national ambitions and international solidarity” would be crucial in achieving that goal.

Merkel, ever the pragmatist, opted for quantifiable mechanisms and pushed for an agreement on a standardized price on emissions.

The German leader praised the “new climate ambition” demonstrated by new US president Joe Biden, as well as the initiatives launched at the national level by other countries, such as Canada, but said those national efforts must be accompanied by “harmonized global mechanisms”

The climate crisis has pushed the world to the “edge of the abyss”, United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

“But if we work together, we can avert the worst impacts of climate disruption, and use the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic to steer us on a cleaner, greener path.”

British prime minister, Boris Johnson, said industrialized nations had “a moral and practical obligation” to develop effective climate strategies.

“We can’t allow action on climate change to become another victim of this appalling pandemic,” he said, pointing out that the next decade will be crucial as the period in which “we either rise up and tackle climate change together or else we sink together into the mire.” EFE

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