World leaders descended on New York City in gas-guzzling SUVs this week for the latest round of United Nations climate meetings where they warned of the risks fossil fuels pose to humanity.
The U.N. hosted the Sustainable Development Goals Summit on Monday and Tuesday as a mid-point review of its 2030 sustainable agenda, and hosted its Climate Ambition Summit one day later on Wednesday to establish “credible, serious and new climate action.” The two summits are the latest in a long line of international meetings the U.N. has hosted that are designed to solve global warming.
“Our focus here is on climate solutions — and our task is urgent. Humanity has opened the gates of hell,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in his opening remarks Wednesday. “Horrendous heat is having horrendous effects. Distraught farmers watching crops carried away by floods; sweltering temperatures spawning disease; And thousands fleeing in fear as historic fires rage. Climate action is dwarfed by the scale of the challenge.”
