Prime Minister Rutte hammers away at the UN on international climate action

In his speech at the General Assembly of the United Nations, Prime Minister Mark Rutte insisted on a vigorous international approach to climate change.

“Climate change is no longer a theoretical doomsday scenario, but for many already a hard reality,” said Rutte, referring to droughts and hurricanes in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom, floods in the Netherlands and neighboring countries this summer and extreme temperatures elsewhere in the world.

Also read this column by Marike Stellinga: If climate policy does hurt

According to Rutte, developed countries have a responsibility to help developing countries take concrete measures. “We must keep the target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees within reach and we cannot allow political tensions between countries to stand in the way of that goal.”

Many other government leaders are also calling attention to climate policy in their speeches at the UN these days. For example, Chinese President Xi Jinping promised on Tuesday that China will no longer build coal-fired power stations abroad and said he will help developing countries to become more sustainable.

In his speech at the 76th annual meeting of the UN, Prime Minister Rutte also considered the “continuing threat” of the corona pandemic and the “tragedy” that took place in Afghanistan this summer. Rutte stated that despite the major problems with the climate, corona and Afghanistan, the world should not lapse into cynicism and fatalism.

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