Today, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made a major speech where he warned that climate impacts are spiraling out of control and stressed the moral duty to act, as well as highlighted the economic opportunities from accelerating action toward a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy. The Secretary-General also shared that he will convene a major Climate Summit in 2019 to bring climate action to the top of the international agenda. Guterres called on all world leaders to come to next year’s Climate Summit prepared to report not only on what they are doing but what more they intend to do in 2020, when countries should update their national climate plans.

Following is a statement from David Waskow, International Climate Director, World Resources Institute:

"The 2019 UN Secretary General's summit will be an opportunity for world leaders to acknowledge the urgency of taking action and the overwhelming evidence that climate solutions deliver more economic growth, better jobs and healthier citizens. That is encouraging, but for this Summit to be a major milestone for the planet leaders need to come ready to commit to strengthen their climate action plans under the Paris Agreement. There is simply no time to waste: to stave off climate change, countries need to step up their commitments by 2020."