国际英语资讯:Spotlight: UN climate change conference COP25 opens with focus on challenges_时事

国际英语资讯:Spotlight: UN climate change conference COP25 opens with focus on challenges

MADRID, Dec. 2 -- The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25) opened here on Monday, where delegates are discussing measures to implement the 2017 Paris Agreement amid unclear prospects and challenges to multilateralism.

The opening ceremony began with a warning from Hoesung Lee, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): "If we continue as we are doing, we run the risk of increasing the temperature of the planet and that will have an effect and terrible consequences for humanity and threaten our existence."

"We are not doing enough and we are not even getting close to what we need to do to control this situation," he said.

国际英语资讯:Spotlight: UN climate change conference COP25 opens with focus on challenges1

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that the world would need "solidarity and flexibility to win the war against climate change."

Guterres explained that there is only one way to control the temperature of the planet and that was "limited use of fossil fuels. If we don't do that we will end up in a catastrophic situation," he warned, before praising the work of young climate activists.

"Young people are telling the leaders that they need to fight against the climate emergency," commented the UN chief.

The conference is hosted by the Spanish capital after Chile, which presides over the event, had to step down as host due to social unrest.

Acting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez welcomed delegates to Spain, saying "Madrid will be the world capital of the fight against the climate emergency ... But above all we want to be the capital of dialogue between nations united against a common enemy for all humanity."