I am truly honoured to be with you here today at this important summit to address the most pressing issue of our time. Eight years ago in Paris, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened the COP21 by stating that “Paris must mark a turning point” towards limiting global warming to 1.5 °Celsius. Today, the window of opportunity to achieve this goal is closing before our eyes: The past eight years have been the warmest on record worldwide and the critical 1.5 C threshold for annual temperatures will likely be exceeded in at least one year before 2027. 3 Record-breaking droughts, heatwaves and floods are already plaguing ... (full story)