Political, private sector, youth and women leaders have gathered at COP19 in Warsaw, Poland, at a High Level Leaders’ Breakfast meeting which aimed to leverage their collective power to mobilise demand for an equitable international climate agreement
Political, private sector, youth and women leaders have gathered at COP19 in Warsaw, Poland, at a High Level Leaders’ Breakfast meeting which aimed to leverage their collective power to mobilise demand for an equitable international climate agreement.
The Breakfast, co-hosted by the COP Presidency and the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, proposed an intergenerational approach to climate change as a unifying theme that can catalyse an urgent response to climate change.
The co-hosts called on guests to endorse a Leaders’ statement, which calls on them to emphasize that approaching climate negotiation through a lens of intergenerational equity can provide for a fair, urgent and ambitious climate agreement, while transforming our economic system and inspiring a new investment model to deal with the risks posed by climate change – both now and in the future.
Mary Robinson, President of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, said: “An intergenerational approach to climate change can serve as a unifying theme connecting young and old; developed and developing countries; public and private sector and civil society to work together for bold and urgent action.
“We need transformational leadership to mobilise demand for a climate agreement in 2015 that will protect the rights of current and future generations. We can’t let our children and grandchildren look back on this critical period in time and say that we failed them.”
Minister Marcin Korolec, the President of COP 19/CMP 9 acknowledged: “”With an awareness comes responsibility: we can’t pretend that the prosperity and security of future generations isn’t ours to consider. Climate change shakes our ability to exist in the here-and-now. It forces us to think longer term. And that is what we are doing in Warsaw. Though progress may be slow, we are laying the foundations for a 2015 agreement.”
The event brought together members of the leadership networks with whom the Foundation actively engages – the Troika+ of Women Leaders on Gender and Climate Change and the High Level Advisory Committee of the Climate Justice Dialgoue – with representatives of national governments, UN agencies, the Youngos, civil society and the private sector.
Related Links
Read the Leaders’ statement endorsed by influential leaders at COP19
Read the Foundations’ Position Paper – Climate Justice: An Intergenerational Approach
The Foundation’s activities at COP19