HUMAN WRONGS WATCH

Human Wrongs Watch

Heavy rains and flooding devastated parts of the Philippines, France and Italy over the weekend and may be further indications of the ‘new normal’ that the world will have to deal with if no accelerated action is taken to curb global warming, the head of United Nations Disaster Reduction Office said on 22 September 2014 on the eve of the UN Climate Summit in New York.

A flooded street in Tacloban, Philippines. Photo: OCHA

Margareta Wahlström, head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) said: “Heads of State are expected to make national announcements on both mitigation and adaptation, and we do hope that these announcements will include commitments to disaster risk reduction.”*

The UN Climate Summit on Tuesday [23 September 2014], convened by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, is the largest gathering of leaders on climate change to date, which aims to mobilize action and obtain more commitments from Governments and actors of the civil society to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and invest in more resilience.

Human Wrongs Watch

By Arin de Hoog – 22 September, 2014, Greenpeace* — Yesterday  [21 September 2014], over half a million people in 160 countries across the world marched against climate change. What clearer signal can there be to policy leaders that they need to either lead or get out of the way? 

Photo: Greenpeace

Leading means using tomorrow’s climate summit to show that governments are going to take decisive action towards capping runaway CO2 emissions and stand up to the fossil fuel industry.

If they are unable or unwilling to do this they need to get out of the way of the millions of their electorate who see the fatal cracks in the ice. Yesterday’s global act of solidarity adds an exclamation point to the rapidly growing number of people who are demanding that industry be accountable to the planet.

Human Wrongs Watch

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 21 September 2014 told what is thought to be the largest ever march in the United States demanding measures to halt the advance of global climate change, that there is no “Plan B” for action as there is no “Planet B.”

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (right) at the People’s Climate March held in New York City, ahead of the Climate Summit he is hosting at UN headquarters on 23 September. UN Photo/Mark Garten

Speaking to journalists after walking with an estimated 300,000 demonstrators on the People’s Climate March through New York City on Sunday he said the world needs to “galvanize our action” and harness the people’s “power to change.”*