Parents of the World, a group that focuses on the well-being of children, has called for an ambitious and binding plan to ensure that global warming stays below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
This was contained in a letter to the Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Climate change has contributed to a jump in food insecurity, mosquito-borne diseases and mass displacement across the world in the past decade.
Also, the rise in sea levels has led to unusual weather patterns such as Tropical Cyclone Idai, which hit Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe in 2019.
Africa, it is understood, has been warming progressively since the start of the last century, and in the next five years, according to the UN World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), northern and southern Africa are likely to get drier and hotter, while the Sahel region gets wetter.
The group’s Africa Focal Point, Ayodele Taofiq-Fanida, called on world leaders to take a firm action.
‘We cannot sit back and be hoping that our representatives, both political and business leaders, will act accordingly on our behalf. We have done that for too long, it is time for action for the sake of the future of my son’, he said.
‘We are using this opportunity to ensure our leaders have the courage, innovative strength and foresight to offer a carbon-neutral future for our children, the time is now’.
For his part, the Global Leader of Parents of the World, Charlotte Potts, said, ‘We have to face this monumental task and make sure that it [does not] get worse. After all, as parents, our most important duty is to ensure the well-being of our children’.
‘Our children will experience a much harsher climate than any previous generation has: a staggering 6.8 times as many heatwaves as a person born in the 1960s and nearly three times as many droughts and river floods. For the sake of our children, we cannot just surrender to this outcome’.
The main purpose of the UN Climate Change Summit is to bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UNFCCC.
More than 190 world leaders are expected to participate, along with tens of thousands of negotiators, government representatives, businesses and citizens for 12 days of talks in Glasgow, Scotland.
‘We beg you that when you gather at the climate summit in Glasgow, you will target a global, ambitious and compulsory plan on how to cut emissions to stop global warming beyond 1.5 degrees’, the letter read.
‘You need to act. You need to give your all. Because if you [do not], our children’s well-being, their lives and, in essence, the very survival of humankind are at stake’.
They called on parents to sign the letter here as they would be sending their request to those in charge.
Photo source: Parents of the World
