MADRID / COP 25 OPENING

Speaking at the opening of the 25th Conference of the Parties (COP 25) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Madrid, Secretary-General António Guterres said the world stands “at a critical juncture” in its collective efforts to limit dangerous global warming. COP25 HOST BROADCASTER

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:12
• Production Date: 2 December 2019
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: ANTONIO GUTERRES
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE - UNFCCC
• Subject Topical: CLIMATE CHANGE; CONFERENCES
• Geographic Subject: CHILE; SPAIN
• MAMS Id: 2508825
• Parent Id: 2508825
• Alternate Title: unifeed191202d

Description

STORY: MADRID / COP 25 OPENING
TRT: 02:12
SOURCE: COP25 HOST BROADCASTER
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 02 DECEMBER 2019, MADRID, SPAIN

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, dais
2. Wide shot, audience
3. Wide shot, Guterres walks up to podium
3. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“We stand at a critical juncture in our collective efforts to limit dangerous global heating. By the end of the coming decade we will be on one of two paths. One is the path of surrender, where we have sleepwalked past the point of no return, jeopardizing the health and safety of everyone on this planet. Do we really want to be remembered as the generation that buried its head in the sand, that fiddled while the planet burned? The other option is the path of hope. A path of resolve, of sustainable solutions. A path where more fossil fuels remain where they should be – in the ground – and where we are on the way to carbon neutrality by 2050.”
4. Med shot, delegates
5. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Millions throughout the world – especially young people – are calling on leaders from all sectors to do more, much more, to address the climate emergency we face. They know we need to get on the right path today, not tomorrow. That means important decisions must be made now, and COP25 is our opportunity.”
6. Wide shot, delegates
7. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“We see some incremental steps towards sustainable business models, but nowhere near the scope and scale required. What we need is not an incremental approach, but a transformational one. We need a rapid and deep change in how we do business, how we generate power, how we build cities, how we move, and how we feed the world. If we don’t urgently change our way of life, we jeopardize life itself.”
8. Wide shot, Guterres walks back to dais
9. Wide shot, audience applause
10. Wide shot, Guterres, President-Designate of COP 25 Carolina Schmidt, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa, Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sánchez and other participants

Storyline

Speaking at the opening of the 25th Conference of the Parties (COP 25) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Madrid, Secretary-General António Guterres today (2 Dec) said the world stands “at a critical juncture” in its collective efforts to limit dangerous global warming.

The Secretary-General said, “by the end of the coming decade we will be on one of two paths. One is the path of surrender, where we have sleepwalked past the point of no return, jeopardizing the health and safety of everyone on this planet,” or a “path of hope. A path of resolve, of sustainable solutions. A path where more fossil fuels remain where they should be – in the ground – and where we are on the way to carbon neutrality by 2050.”

He asked, “do we really want to be remembered as the generation that buried its head in the sand, that fiddled while the planet burned?”

Guterres said, “millions throughout the world – especially young people – are calling on leaders from all sectors to do more, much more, to address the climate emergency we face. They know we need to get on the right path today, not tomorrow. That means important decisions must be made now, and COP25 is our opportunity.”

He said, “incremental steps” taken so far are “nowhere near the scope and scale required,” and added that “what we need is not an incremental approach, but a transformational one.”

The Secretary-General said, “we need a rapid and deep change in how we do business, how we generate power, how we build cities, how we move, and how we feed the world.”

He stressed that “if we don’t urgently change our way of life, we jeopardize life itself.”

Guterres outlined the work programme for the two-week event covering multiple aspects of the climate crisis, including capacity-building, deforestation, indigenous peoples, cities, finance, technology, and gender.

COP25 marks the beginning of a 12-month process to review countries’ “Nationally Determined Contributions” or NDCs (the commitments made under the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement) and ensure that they are ambitious enough to defeat the climate emergency.