COP25: Johan Rockström speaks at High Level Event on Climate Emergency

11.12.2019 - Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, addressed the plenary of delegates of COP 25 in Madrid during a High Level Event on Climate Emergency. In his opening remarks he gave an "update from science", stressing that "the red thread in science over the past 20 years, is that we have underestimated the pace of change and the risks we are facing."
COP25: Johan Rockström speaks at High Level Event on Climate Emergency

"2019 is not only another dark year in terms of global warming - the last 5 years are the warmest on record, and climate impacts - droughts, floods, fires and heatwaves hitting societies across the world," Rockström said. "2019 is also a unique year in terms of advancement of unequivocal scientific evidence. We stand on a gigantic mountain of proof - through the IPCC special reports on Land, Ice and Oceans, the WMO led United in Science report to the UN Climate Summit in September, the 10 New Insights in Climate Science presented by Future Earth and Earth League earlier this week" and further reports.

Among the other speakers of the High Level Event were Greta Thunberg, the UNFCCC High Level Champion Gonzalo Muñoz and the Minister for Ecological Transformation of Spain Teresa Ribeira, Axel van Trotsenburg, Managing Director of the World Bank or Elina Bradram from the European Commission DG Climate Action.

See below for the on-demand Webcast of the High Level Event on Climate Emergency: