Politics

Merkel: Developed countries should contribute more to combat global warming

Sydney, Australia, Nov 12 (EFE).- German chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday that the most developed and technologically advanced countries have an obligation to make the biggest efforts to combat the global climate crisis.

Merkel was speaking alongside New Zealand prime minister and 2021 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum host Jacinda Ardern on the final day of the CEO Summit.

The chancellor said a major technological upheaval comparable to industrialization in the 19th century is needed in order to shift to more renewable energy sources.

“Those countries that are technologically advanced and also have the highest living standard have to make the biggest contribution,” Merkel said at the summit on the global situation during the Covid-19 pandemic as almost 200 nations were preparing to wrap up COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.

Ardern said that in the South Pacific, climate change feels “very acute (…) we can already see the effects of it here.”

“In the Pacific, it is literally those rising sea levels that you can see now,” she said.

Addressing the Covid-19 pandemic, Merkel, whose country is not an APEC member and is in the midst of a strong fourth Covid wave, highlighted the importance of achieving high vaccination rates, lamenting that there are still sectors of the German population that have yet to be immunized.

“To a certain extent you also, as a member of society, have the duty to be vaccinated to protect yourself and to protect others,” she stressed.

Ardern emphasized, among other points, cohesion in the response to the pandemic, as well as in the communication of information to the public.

“Businesses designed the way they needed to operate to meet those standards, and they did a phenomenal job of adapting very quickly,” she said, adding that Covid-19 responses were shared between world leaders in bilateral meetings.

“We need to do the same for all of those global challenges that we face, not least climate change,” added Ardern ahead of a leaders summit that will take place Friday and Saturday.

APEC member countries represent 60 percent of world GDP, more than half of global trade, and a market of about 2.85 billion consumers – 40 percent of the world’s population.

The 21 economies that make up APEC, founded in 1989 to promote free trade, are: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, United States and Vietnam. EFE

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