The 25th UN Climate Change Conference (COP25), in progress in Madrid, is crucial for countries to consolidate efforts and work out a plan of action on climate change with clear deadlines before it is too late, Nigerian Environment Minister Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar told Sputnik
MADRID (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th December, 2019) The 25th UN Climate Change Conference (COP25), in progress in Madrid, is crucial for countries to consolidate efforts and work out a plan of action on climate change with clear deadlines before it is too late, Nigerian Environment Minister Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar told Sputnik.
"I believe that this COP is crucial. People know that. Nations are serious, both developed and developing countries. We want to do everything humanly possible to see it succeed. I believe a number of issues will be resolved because we don't have time," Abubakar said.
The minister emphasized that problems, brought about by the climate change, exacerbate "every passing year and every passing month."
"We must have an agreement of what to do, how to do and when to do. The time is no longer on our side," he added.
Last week, the head of Europe's largest climate NGOs association Climate Action Network, Wendel Trio, voiced a similar concern, saying that 2020 is going to be a pivotal year for the countries to start implementing the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, otherwise it will get "extremely hard" to achieve the goals set out in the treaty.
The COP25 launched on December 2 to run through Friday. The agenda is focused on the goals outlined in the Paris Agreement. The treaty's most well-known premise is to try to keep the global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels and to ideally pursue an even lower limit of 1.5 degrees.
