The United Nations climate chief has said pledges by China, Japan and South Korea to slash carbon emissions to net zero are “extremely important” signs of leadership in reviving global efforts to tackle climate change.
Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), welcomed this week’s announcements by Japan and South Korea that they would target carbon neutrality by 2050, and China’s pledge in September to hit the goal by 2060.
“These signals of very strong commitments by countries that are very important, and that have a real impact on the level of emissions globally, are extremely important,” Ms Espinosa told Reuters Newsagency in a video interview.
“And it’s also very important to recognise that they are coming at a time when we need this kind of leadership,” she said.
Diplomats had begun 2020 hoping this would prove to be a pivotal year in implementing a global accord to slow climate change brokered in Paris in 2015.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic threw those plans into disarray, forcing officials to postpone a major climate conference that had been due to take place in Glasgow in November by a year.
Climate diplomacy has been further overshadowed by last year’s move by United States President Donald Trump to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement.
That decision takes effect the day after US presidential elections on November 3, the earliest date the country could leave due to way the pact is designed.
Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden has pledged to return the US to the UN sponsored Paris Agreement if he wins.
Ms Espinosa said the Asian net-zero pledges had boosted hopes that more countries would take bolder climate action.
“It’s really a significant contribution towards bringing the international community in line to achieving the goals under the Paris Agreement,” she said.
“And that means the future for humanity in this planet.”
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