Strengthening Climate Resilience of the World’s Most Vulnerable Countries and People

A new initiative to build climate resilience in the world’s most vulnerable countries was launched yesterday by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and 13 members within the UN system at COP21, the Paris Climate Conference.  The new initiative will strengthen the ability of countries to anticipate hazards, absorb shocks, and reshape development to reduce climate risks.

The newly announced initiative, the  UN Secretary-General’s Climate Resilience  Initiative — Anticipate, Absorb, Reshape — will help address the needs of the nearly 634 million people, or  a tenth of the global population who live in at-risk coastal areas just a few meters above existing sea levels, as well as those living in areas at risk of droughts and floods.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said a political moment like this may not come again. “You are here today to write the script for a new future,” Mr. Ban told around 150 world leaders who were in attendance. “We have never faced such a test,” he continued. “But neither have we encountered such great opportunity. You have the power to secure the well-being of this and succeeding generations."

To read more, please click here and here.

Watch Mr. Ban speak about the effects of climate change on our planet in the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=halGxTJEUaM

Source & Copyright: UN Sustainable Development Blog & UN News Centre