World Leaders Must Guarantee Paris Climate Deal Implementation - UN Secretary-General

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called on world leaders to reinvigorate efforts to combat climate change and guarantee the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th September, 2018) United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called on world leaders to reinvigorate efforts to combat climate change and guarantee the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

"Climate change is moving faster than we are - and its speed has provoked a sonic boom SOS across the world," Guterres said during an address to kick of the general debate of the 73 UN General Assembly.

Guterres noted that for the first time this year, the permanent sea ice north of Greenland began to break up as a result of warming global temperatures.

"The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the highest in 3 million years - and rising. Making matters worse, we as a community of world leaders are not doing enough. ... We must guarantee the implementation of the Paris Agreement," he added.

The Paris Agreement, signed by more than 190 parties, was adopted within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in December 2015 and came into force in November 2016. The main goal of the Paris accord is to tackle climate change by keeping the rise in a global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.