US: Ethiopia warns 'No time for scepticism, decisive climate action needed now'

23 Septembre 2017

NEW YORK, US, September 23 (Infosplusgabon) - Like many other countries, Ethiopia is dealing almost every day with the adverse impacts of climate change, its Prime Minister told the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, urging decisive action by the international community.

“Now is not the time to doubt the devastating impacts of climate change while millions of our fellow humans are losing their lives and their hard-won development achievements,” Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said during the annual high-level debate.

“This is high time to act – and act urgently and decisively – to combat the adverse impacts of climate change, particularly its disproportionate adverse effect on the most vulnerable countries, which – as it has been repeatedly stated – bear almost no responsibility in causing climate change,” he added, a UN statement said.

He noted that Ethiopia successfully dealt with the El Nino-induced drought in 2015, but is again facing the adverse impact of climate change.

While expressing appreciation to bilateral and multilateral partners for support, he said Ethiopia will continue to implement its national strategy of building a green and resilient economy.

As the President of the Security Council this month, he said Ethiopia welcomed the unanimous adoption of the draft resolution it tabled on Wednesday. Through the resolution, the 15-member body reaffirmed its determination to pursue more prioritisation when evaluating, mandating and reviewing peacekeeping operations.

“As one of the leading troop contributing countries, Ethiopia attaches great importance to strengthening the role of United Nations peacekeeping to address challenges to international peace and security,” he said.

For his part, Somalia's Prime Minister noted that countries across the globe – including his own – continued to pay a dear price for acts of terrorism and violent extremism and urged global leaders to “spare no effort” to neutralise the growth and influence of terrorist groups.

“In Somalia, we have made significant strides, which have weakened the capacity of Al-Shabaab,” said Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre.

He added that to ensure the sustainability of such gains his nation is strengthening its military capacity and in that context, urge an ease of the sanctions against Somalia.

In his address, the Prime Minister also urged global leaders at the United Nations General Assembly to commit themselves to make sure that environmental degradation and impacts of climate change are addressed given their direct link to crop failure, vanishing water sources, extreme weather and devastating disasters.

Building a sustainable future, he said, also depended on advancing the society. In that context, he noted Somalia’s initiatives for gender empowerment and ensuring the respect for human rights of all people, including through the establishment of national human rights institutions, as well as empowerment of youth and strengthening economic institutions.

Concluding his address, Prime Minister Khayre echoed the words of other world leaders, noting the need for reforms at the UN and said that reform efforts instituted by Secretary-General António Guterres would lead the Organization to achieve greater efficiency, dynamism and responsiveness.

FIN/INFOSPLUSGABON/ORG/GABON 2017

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