'Mass of humanity' favors Paris pact, UN official says

Ahead of the US announcement to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, the president of the UN General Assembly said that "the great mass of humanity" will be committed to global efforts to combat climate change.

"Whatever the US decides today, the good news is that the great mass of humanity - including American citizens, by indications of the polls - and the great mass of international governments are committed to these two great agreements that we will put in place and (that are) the only way we'll have some confidence about the future of our grandchildren," said Peter Thomson.

He said that countries "did the responsible thing for the future generations to come" in 2015 by putting in place the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and ratifying the Paris Agreement.

"With those two agreements, our grandchildren have a secure future. Without implementation of those, we're in trouble," said Thomson, speaking on Thursday at a press briefing for the upcoming UN Ocean Conference.

Wu Hongbo, under-secretary-general for UN Economic and Social Affairs, stated that "climate change is an undeniable fact. The climate change actions taken by the international community are unstoppable."

He said that he remains optimistic about the actions that the global community will take to address climate change and its adverse effects.

Both UN officials previewed the UN Ocean Conference - running from June 5 to June 9 - that will see the participation of more than 5,000 participants from the public and private sectors to discuss actions to improve the state of the world's oceans.

Heads of states, governments, business leaders and civil society organizations will focus on how to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 14, which seeks to conserve and sustainably use oceans, seas and marine sources for sustainable development.

"Oceans do have an impact on climate. Climate change has an adverse effect on oceans," Wu said. "From the responses from sea countries, you know how serious the adverse effects on those countries and the people on those islands are."

Thomson said that problems with the world's oceans are issues created by people: "It's not stuff that's been occurring naturally. All of these problems are created anthropogenically."

amyhe@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily USA 06/02/2017 page2)