The UN High-Level Meeting on Tuberculosis has kicked off at the United Nations Headquaters in New York as world leaders, including President Mohammadu Buhari, arrived for the historic event to commit to global efforts to curb the global menace of tuberculosis (TB).
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO). Photo credit: AFP / FABRICE COFFRINI / Getty Images
The event was organised by numerous partners and TB stakeholders, including but not limited to the Stop TB Partnership, World Health Organisation (WHO), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), African Union and a host of others. The Heads of State and Government are expected to, for the first time in UN history, discuss and adopt the Political Declaration on the Fight against Tuberculosis during a dedicated high-level meeting on Wednesday, September 26, 2018.
There has been no real progress against the infection in the last two years. According to the latest Global TB Report launched by the WHO this month, TB is one of the top 10 causes of death and the leading cause from a single infectious agent (above HIV/AIDS). Millions of people continue to fall sick with TB each year.
The Stop-TB Partnership stated that there are still 10 million people who get sick with TB every year. TB remains the most significant single infectious disease killer, causing 1.6 million deaths in 2017. We still miss roughly 4 million people with TB. There are still more than half a million people who got sick with drug-resistant TB. TB incidence continue to decrease at a very slow pace of around 2% a year, woefully insufficient to reach the milestones we have set towards ending TB.
The WHO report stated that there were cases in all countries (including Nigeria) and age groups, but overall 90% were adults (aged ≥15 years), 9% were people living with HIV (72% in Africa) and two thirds were in eight countries: India (27%), China (9%), Indonesia (8%), the Philippines (6%), Pakistan (5%), Nigeria (4%), Bangladesh (4%) and South Africa (3%). These and 22 other countries in WHO’s list of 30 high TB burden countries accounted for 87% of the world’s cases. Only 6% of global cases were in the WHO European Region (3%) and WHO Region of the Americas (3%).
GSK and Aeras on Tuesday, September 25, 2018 reported that GSK’s M72/AS01E candidate vaccine significantly reduced the incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis disease in HIV-negative adults with latent tuberculosis infection in an ongoing phase IIb clinical trial testing.
Dr Emmanuel Hanon, Senior Vice-President and Head of R&D, Global Vaccines GSK
These primary results published in the New England Journal of Medicine after two years of trial are said to demonstrate an overall vaccine efficacy of 54%, with varied response rates observed in different demographic sub-groups. The candidate vaccine had an acceptable safety and reactogenicity profile.
Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death through infectious disease worldwide and represents a significant public health threat with 1.6 million attributed deaths in 2017. It is estimated that one-quarter of the global population has latent tuberculosis infection, of whom approximately 10% will develop active pulmonary tuberculosis disease.
Currently, multi-drug resistant strains of tuberculosis are emerging globally, and the only currently available vaccine against tuberculosis, BCG, does not provide proven and consistent protection in adults in tuberculosis endemic countries. Without a more effective vaccine, it will not be possible to achieve the WHO target of decreasing the number of new cases by 90% and the number of tuberculosis deaths by 95% between 2015 and 2035.
Dr Emmanuel Hanon, Senior Vice-President and Head of R&D, Global Vaccines GSK, said: “These initial findings represent a significant innovation in the development of a new and much-needed vaccine and advance the scientific understanding of tuberculosis. This scientific breakthrough – one of the very few in tuberculosis vaccine development for almost 100 years – has been made possible by our strategic partnership with Aeras, in which GSK is providing the innovation expertise and technology platforms, such as the proprietary AS01 adjuvant.”
The study assesses the safety and efficacy of M72/AS01E protecting adults with latent tuberculosis infection against developing pulmonary tuberculosis disease. The ongoing trial is conducted in tuberculosis endemic regions (Kenya, South Africa and Zambia) and involves 3,573 HIV-negative adults. For this analysis, participants who received two doses of either M72/AS01E or placebo 30 days apart have been followed up for at least 2 years to detect evidence of pulmonary tuberculosis disease. In the vaccine group, 10 participants developed active pulmonary tuberculosis compared to 22 participants in the placebo group.
Jacqui Shea, Chief Executive Officer of Aeras, which contributed to the partnership their decades long experience in tuberculosis vaccine clinical development, clinical operations capabilities and strong links with African clinical sites and patient communities, said: “This ground-breaking study shows – for the first time – that a subunit vaccine can significantly reduce the incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis in healthy, HIV-negative adults with latent tuberculosis infection, and that more effective vaccines against tuberculosis are achievable. Given the overwhelming public health need, the importance of these promising results, which need to be confirmed through additional clinical research, cannot be overstated. An effective vaccine, able to reduce transmission, would be by far the most impactful new intervention to end the global tuberculosis epidemic.”
The study is still ongoing and a final analysis including all efficacy, safety, reactogenicity and immunogenicity data will be performed in 2019 after all participants have completed three years of follow up.
Some Environmentalists and stakeholders in the environment sector on Tuesday, September 25, 2018 advised Nigerians to join the fight in combating environmental degradation by giving the environment a palatable treatment.
Lagos State University, Ojo
They spoke at a one-day conference organised by the Geography and Planning Students’ Association of the Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo.
The title of the conference was: “Environmental Management and Advocacy – A tool for sustainable development”.
Ayo Tella, Acting Rector, Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, said Nigerians were not doing enough as individuals, group or corporate entity to control or address issued of environmental deficit.
Tella said evolution of more cities and mega city within the country had promoted the consumption of more energy and increase in heat production.
He said while 50 per cent of people in the world today live in cities, 75 per cent of carbon is generated in cities, hereby, causing global warming.
According to him, there is need to transform the cities and megacity to a smart city, which is largely driven by technology and observe green habit.
“Green habit is friendly to the environment because all waste generated is recycled and places such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Eko Atlantic are examples of smart cities,” he said.
Tella also noted that plastic pollution and indiscriminate waste disposal, among other habit were creating huge menace in our environment.
He said indiscriminate disposal of plastic such as bottles, synthetic cloth, polythene, tyres and waste causes blocked water channel and a spill-over effect of blocked channel is what causes flood.
“Flood causes death, electrocution, injury, infection, affect power supply and business,” he said.
The Acting Rector called for upgrade of slums, urban planning, promotion of public transport, efficient use of natural resources, reduced food losses and waste generation.
He also urged Nigerians to conserve energy consumption by using energy saving bulbs in place of incandescent bulbs, using energy saving devices and also put off lights and other appliances when not in use.
Tella emphasised that environmental sustainability was a collective responsibility and conserving nature was inevitable for as long as we continue to exist.
Also, Mr Babatunde Hunpe, Special Adviser to Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State on Environment, represented by Mr Michael Bankole, said Nigerians must do everything possible to ensure that our existence was sustainable.
Hunpe said that there was no chance for living, if we do not take care of the environment.
“Our activities are not sustaining the environment, because our activities are not palatable to the environment.
“The relationship between the duo is that environment is the host and we are the parasite; it means those PEP bottles, sachets you throw about is detrimental to the environment,” he said.
Speaking in the same vein, Mrs Bilkiss Adebiyi, General Manager, LASPARK, represented by Mrs Funmilayo Daudu, an official of the agency, said the citizens had a lot to do in combating the scourge of environmental degradation.
Adebiyi urged Nigerians to partner with the government in the area of preserving the environment and cultivate the habit of reducing refuse and recycle of waste disposal.
“Inculcate sustainability system into your children, live good, ensure cleaner, healthier Lagos and do not leave everything for the government and PSP to do,” she said.
President, Geography and Planning Student Association, LASU, Mr Ezekiel Olajolo said the conference was organised to provide answers to the sustainable existence of man on earth and also promote a cleaner Lagos.
“If you do not take care of mother earth, she will take care of herself and it will be disastrous to nature and mankind when she does so,” he said.
The Civil Society Coalition on Sustainable Development (CSCSD) has called on governments to prioritise Goal Six of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their water and sanitation projects.
Suleiman Adamu Kazaure, Water Resources Minister
The coalition made the call on Tuesday, September 25, 2018 in Abuja at a roundtable on the National Water Resources Bill, which is currently pending before the Senate, in commemoration of the third anniversary of the introduction of the SDGs.
The gathering, which attracted stakeholders from different organisations, presented an opportunity for civil society to contribute to efforts to create the way forward for Nigeria in the new global development order.
Some 17 SDGs were adopted by the UN General Assembly on Sept. 25, 2015, to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which commenced in 2000.
Goal Six of the SDGs is targeted at achieving universal and equitable access to safe and affordable Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) for all by 2030.
Dr Tola Winjobi, National Coordinator of CSCSD, in his address, said that civil society organisations (CSOs) in the water sector found it expedient to join the global civil society to mark the third anniversary of SDGs.
According to him, anniversary is celebrated simultaneously across the world by governments, CSOs and professional associations, among others.
Winjobi, therefore, urged the federal, state and local governments in the country to prioritise the WASH sector in their governance projects.
He said that as part of efforts to achieve this, there was a need for the opponents of the Water Resources Bill to have a rethink because of the importance of the bill in the management of the country’s water sector.
He stressed that the achievement of Goal Six of the SDGs was largely dependent on the political will of the nation’s political leaders, adding that the prioritisation of the water sector was imperative, considering its roles in the fulfilment of all the SDGs.
Winjobi said that Nigeria had the wherewithal to attain the SDGs, particularly Goal Six which related to the water sector.
“One of the goals that needs to be prioritised is Goal Six, which mandates the governments to ensure the availability, sustainability as well as management of water and sanitation for all before 2030,’’ he said.
He lamented that the self-centredness of some leaders, coupled with endemic corruption, had been the bane of the development of the waster sectors over time.
He said that the bill, when passed, would be a compendium of all water-related bodies that were already in existence such as the National Inland Waterways and the National Water Resources Institute.
Winjobi underscored the need for all stakeholders in the water sector to join hands with government to educate the public on the benefits of the bill.
He highlighted some of the benefits as economic development, social welfare and environmental sustainability, land and water resources management, among others.
Also speaking, Rev. Father Patrick Ngoyi, Chairman of Board of Trustees, CSCSD, called for a synergy between government officials and stakeholders in the water sector to address perceptible misunderstandings on the bill.
Ngoyi also urged media to undertake enlightenment campaign through their reportage to sensitise Nigerians to the importance of the water bill.
Mr Reuben Habu, Executive Director, Nigeria Integrated Water Resources Management Commission, thanked the stakeholders for considering issues surrounding the bill during the third anniversary of the SDGs.
He said that while Nigeria appeared to have abundant water resources, the sustainability of the resources seemed to be threatened by land degradation, deforestation, climate change and other socio-economic factors.
Habu noted that all these challenges had placed tremendous pressure on the country’s water resources system, adding, however, that the bill had the capacity to address some of these challenges when passed into law.
Head of Imo/Abia Operations Office, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mr Evans Ugoh, has confirmed that a pastor and his wife died in Monday’s massive flood in a community in Imo State.
Mustapha Maihaja, Director General, NEMA
Ugoh confirmed the incident on Tuesday, September 25, 2018 in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Owerri, the state capital.
NAN reports that the flood swept away some homes and farmlands in Oguta, the headquarters of Oguta Local Government Area (LGA) of Imo.
The NEMA official, who did not disclose the identities of the deceased couple, blamed the incident on the alleged neglect of the agency’s early warning.
He said that the agency gave evacuation notice early enough but regretted that it was ignored by the community.
Ugoh said that he led a team of NEMA officials to Oguta and Ohaji/Egbema LGAs to monitor the sea level in the wake of increasing cases of flood in the area.
“When we discovered that there was an unusual rise in the sea level, we immediately issued evacuation notice to seven communities in the area,” he said.
He said that the agency also advised the communities likely to be affected to monitor the sea regularly and report to the agency for prompt action.
The head of operations regretted that the couple died barely one week after the evacuation notice was issued.
Reacting to the incident, the Traditional Ruler of Oguta community, Eze Nani Nzeribe, told NAN that flood had been a major problem in the area.
Nzeribe said that the couple died in the flood while attempting to recover some of their farm produce.
He said, “When the flood submerged most of the farmlands and homes in the community, the pastor and his wife moved into their farm to recover some items.
“Unfortunately, before they could get to safety, their overloaded canoe capsized leading to their death.
He appealed to NEMA and the Federal Government to urgently come to the aid of the community to forestall a repeat occurrence.
A university lecturer, Prof. Emmanuel Oladipo, has called on the relevant research institutions to conduct more research that would address the issues of climate change in the country.
Prof. Emmanuel Olukayode Oladipo
Oladipo, who is of the Department of Geography, University of Lagos, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday, September 25, 2018 that such research should be included in the nation strategic plan.
He made the call on the sideline of a two-day 11th Global Environmental Facility (GEF) National Steering Committee Meeting in the federal capital city.
“The role of climate change in addressing the complex development challenge being witnessed in many parts of Nigeria, and particularly in the northern part, needs to be properly researched.
“It should also be included in future strategic policy options that are being considered for solving the problem.
“Unless this is done, and appropriate adaptation strategies are put in place, climate change-induced resource scarcity will continue to reinforce the cycle of poverty in the affected areas,’’ Oladipo said.
According to him, it can also reinforce existing feelings of grievance or mistrust between groups.
He said that climate change contributed to or intensified natural disasters such as floods or droughts, which could have socio-economic impacts, such as migration, displacement, and market collapse and infrastructure destruction.
According to him, the resulting complex emergency can create a vacuum of security and rule of law.
“During this time, armed groups or criminals can seize the opportunity to use violence to their advantage.
“The scale, scope, and duration of the violence depend upon the fragility or resilience of the state and official security forces.’’
According to him, the northern part of Nigeria is already environmentally stressed and lacks capacities and robust institutions for managing its vulnerabilities and maintaining law and order.
These, he added, might continue to hard hit on the society with persistent conflicts.
The don said that adapting to the increasing precarious climatic conditions would ensure the sustainable use of the nation’s natural resources for meaningful development and national stability.
The 2018 World Social Science Forum was officially opened on Tuesday, September 25, 2018 by Their Imperial Highnesses the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Japan. In his opening speech, Crown Prince Naruhito noted the importance of the Forum as an international arena for social scientists, adding that the creation of the International Science Council was “of great significance”.
Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe. Photo credit: telegraph.co.uk
Under the theme of “Security and Equality for Sustainable Futures” the four-day conference gathers world-leading experts to debate the question of security in all its dimensions. In a pre-recorded message to delegates, Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan, added his wishes for the success of the Forum.
“Security has become one of the defining questions of our times,” said Daya Reddy, President of the International Science Council, in his opening remarks, adding:
“Societies worldwide are facing new forms of conflicts and wars, disruptive environmental change, a digital revolution which raises a multitude of security issues at different levels, and deep, persistent inequalities shaping how people experience these phenomena and respond to them. As members of the global scientific community, we must further develop our ability to address and respond to these challenges, and increasingly consider how they interact and condition one another.”
Over the next three days, approximately 1,000 participants from all over the world will discuss topics such as conflicts in Southeast Asia and elsewhere, transnational terrorism, human security, Artificial Intelligence, and climate and energy security. Plenary speakers include renowned social scientist Craig Calhoun; Kate Raworth, author of “Doughnut economics”; Katsumi Emura, Executive Vice-President of the NEC Corporation; and prize-winning war correspondent, Hoda Abdel-Hamid.
A round-table held in partnership with UNESCO will highlight policy questions for dealing with security issues in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while a session with government science advisors will look at social security developments in the age of Big Data.
The Forum is organised by the International Science Council together with a consortium of local partners led by Kyushu University.
Chair of the local organising committee, Kazuo Miyamoto, Senior Vice-President of Kyushu University, said: “It is an honour to host the World Social Science Forum in Fukuoka. Kyushu University has long been a hub for international collaboration and pioneering research across the social and natural sciences, and this international event will help to mobilise researchers in the region and further afield. The discussions here truly demonstrate that the contributions of the social sciences are vital for solving the most pressing challenges of the 21st century, and that Japanese social sciences are well placed to be at the forefront of international efforts.”
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, says the Federal Government will from 2019 commence the revocation of the licences of oil companies that fail to stop gas flaring in their operations in the country.
Gas flaring in Ogoniland, Nigeria. Photo credit: premiumtimesng.com
Kachikwu made this known while speaking at the 2018 Buyers’ Forum/Stakeholders’ Engagement organised by the Gas Aggregation Company of Nigeria (GACN) in Abuja, on Monday, September 24, 2018
He said that the Federal Government had been locked in a battle with upstream oil companies over the issue of gas flaring.
He noted that the Federal Government was keen on ending gas flaring, but oil companies still give lot of reasons why gas flaring cannot be ended.
“Government wants to end flaring while oil companies still give lot of reasons why it cannot be ended.
“Bottom line is cash call and money. But the reality is that whether or not we deal with cash call issues, it is not an optional agenda, it is a compulsive immediate agenda.
“It is destructive to the populace; it is intolerable in developed country and it should not be tolerated here either,’’ he said
He added that any oil company that could not find a way to ending its flare ought not to be producing.
“And I have said to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), beginning from next year, we are going to get quite frantic about this and companies that cannot meet with extended periods — the issue is not how much you pay in terms of fines for gas flaring, the issue is that you would not produce.
“We need to begin to look at foreclosing of licences. This is very urgent,” he added
The Minister stressed that the quest to discourage gas flaring led the Federal Government to initiate the gas flare commercialisation programme.
He said that future renewals of oil and gas licences would involve the assessments of the gas components and gas flare rate of each company seeking renewals.
“Some of the ones that have come recently for renewals have insisted that they are building massive gas processing plants and we are going to follow this right through so that the supply obligation, the processing facility, the treatment of gas; their submissions are very accurate and very aggressive,” he noted.
On domestic supply obligation, he said that there was the need for a critical implementation, adding that it would be extended for both gas and crude oil.
Kachikwu said that the country needed to move away from the point of just producing these commodities, throwing it into the vessel and shipping it out, to the point of processing as much of it locally as much as possible.
According to him, it is only through this that the country will we be able to create more jobs, create better profit and returns on investments.
“It will also help to achieve better pricing and address the challenges of local industries and industrialisation,’’ he said.
The Minister disclosed that the Federal Government would launch the infrastructure revamp programme in November.
This, he said, has the potential of attracting between 20 billion and 30 billion dollars of investments into the petroleum industry and also help address the infrastructural deficiencies in the industry.
Also speaking, Managing Director of GACN, Mr. Morgan Okwoche, highlighted the need for optimum collaboration among industry players in the development of the gas sector.
He called on the DPR to expedite action on the issuance/renewal of the five-year rolling Domestic Supply Obligation (DSO) volumes which will help in effective project planning.
Zambia has signed an agreement with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Centre for Africa for the establishment of a southern Africa regional office, a senior government official said on Monday, September 24, 2018.
Zambia’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Joseph Malanji
The deal was signed between Zambia’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Joseph Malanji, and SDG Centre for Africa Director-General, Belau Begashaw, in New York.
The agreement will see the country host the office which will be advocating for the implementation of SDGs in the southern African region in line with the principles of the AU Agenda 2063, the Zambian minister said.
The Zambian minister, who is in New York for the UN General Assembly, said the government was committed to the global principles in the fight against poverty.
The minister said that commitment of government enhances its decision to develop the Seventh National Development Plan which has since been aligned to the SDGs.
The government, he said, was implementing several social protection programmes aimed at empowering women and youth as well as other vulnerable people.
He commended the Zambian government for agreeing to host the regional centre and committing itself to fighting poverty.
Similarly, African wild dogs have vanished from a national park in western Zambia in unclear circumstances, authorities said on Monday.
The wild dogs were last spotted in Liuwa National Park in 2013 while operations to establish their whereabouts have proved futile, Gabriel Masaku, Liuwa Area Warden, said.
Masaku, who said this during a meeting with traditional leaders, raised concerns over the disappearance of the wild dogs that it was difficult to trace the animals because they were not fitted with satellite collars.
During the meeting, the traditional leaders said African wild dogs were one of the prides of the national park and wondered how all the parks could have migrated from the ecosystem where they have lived for centuries.
The traditional leaders have since asked the Department of National Parks and Wildlife to expedite the search for the wild dogs.
The official, however, told the traditional leaders that the wild dogs could either have migrated to neighbouring countries or wiped out by rabies.
The traditional leaders also gave the department up to mid-October to issue a compressive report regarding the disappearance of the African wild dogs.
Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change, Patricia Espinosa, has called for more urgency in taking climate action.
Patricia Espinosa
She made the submission at the opening of the New York Climate Week on Monday, September 24, 2018, even as she stressed the need for leadership and a committed multilateral response.
The last round of formal negotiations took place in Thailand in September, in preparation of the UN Climate Change Conference in Poland (COP24) at the end of the year, with uneven progress.
“Recent negotiations in Bangkok on the Paris Agreement’s implementation guidelines made some progress, but not enough. We must therefore work harder than ever between now and COP24 to complete this work,” she said.
Espinosa received a Call for Action at the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco slightly over a week ago, which outlines how states, regions, cities, businesses, investors and communities are stepping up action to put the world on track for a climate-safe world.
In New York City, the UN’s top climate change official stressed the importance of an approach to climate action that empowers bottom-up action, in the form of inclusive multilateralism:
“Listen to the voices of billions who understand that time itself is a dwindling resource when it comes to climate change to those who understand that addressing climate change provides extraordinary opportunity and are acting,” she said.
Her full presentation:
Seventy-three years ago, nations – ravaged by war, weary of its costs – pledged to achieve what had, for the first half of the century, been impossible: a lasting peace.
The signing of the UN Charter in San Francisco was more than an agreement to get along.
It established a rules-based international order, championed multilateralism over self-interest, and clarified that the path forward was not through conflict but collaboration.
We bear the fruit of that work. Today, many are healthier, better educated, and more peaceful than at any point in history.
But humanity faces a new challenge; one that threatens current and future generations.
Climate change is an opponent we shaped with our own hands, but whose power now threatens to overwhelm us.
Throughout the world, extreme heatwaves, wildfires, storms and floods are leaving a trail of devastation and death.
Developing countries suffer the worst, but climate change affects all nations—directly and indirectly.
It’s a challenge that a rules-based international order is custom-designed to address—which led to the Paris Agreement.
Like the UN Charter itself, its signing was an unprecedented multilateral success.
But nations are not living up to what they promised.
Under it, nations agreed to limit climate change to 2-degrees Celsius—ideally 1.5C.
These targets are the bare minimum to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
But what nations have currently pledged under Paris will bring the global temperature up about 3C by 2100.
Let us be clear: low ambition leads to a future where humanity no longer controls its own fate – runaway climate change does.
Recent negotiations in Bangkok on the Paris Agreement’s implementation guidelines made some progress, but not enough.
We must therefore work harder than ever between now and COP24 to complete this work.
We need to see leadership, we need to recognize the urgency we face, and we need to make a commitment to a decisive multilateral response. We have no other option.
This means that we must:
Listen to the voices of billions who understand that time itself is a dwindling resource when it comes to climate change.
Listen also to those who understand that addressing climate change provides extraordinary opportunity and are acting.
Just as 73 years ago the UN Charter was signed in San Francisco and then moved to New York City…
…we’ve also just arrived from San Francisco and the Global Climate Action Summit.
It was a clear statement from businesses and investors around the world that they have seen the future, and it’s green.
I have with me a call to action from the Summit.
It outlines how states, regions, cities, businesses, investors and communities are stepping up action to put us on track for a climate-safe world.
Let this be a call to nations to not only step up their climate ambition, but chart a clear path to the future, and empower bottom-up climate action.
Let that work continue here in New York, and let multilateralism remain our way forward.
I’m reminded of something by a great supporter of multilateralism, the late Kofi Annan.
In remarks commemorating the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks, he said:
I stand before you today as a multilateralist – by precedent, by principle, by Charter and by duty.
The best way to honour Mr. Annan is to honour his words.
Let us build upon them, by embracing what I call inclusive multilateralism, one that recognizes the need for more voices at the table, not fewer.
I recognise none of this is easy – nothing this transformative or important ever is. But it’s worth it.
It’s worth it because by addressing climate change, we can build a better, more resilient future, both for this generation and all generations to follow…
…a future that is both cleaner and greener, but one where poverty is reduced, rights are shared more equally by all, and that all people can live, love, learn and prosper.
