Jeremić Addreses High-level UN Climate Event

Opening Segment Speech to the High-level Event on Climate Change of the sixty-ninth session of the UN General Assembly

by H.E. Mr. Vuk Jeremić, President of the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development (CIRSD)

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Seventy years ago, this organization was conceived as a riposte to the most terrible man-induced disaster in the annals of history.

In the decades thereafter—despite much turmoil and strife—the general peace was kept, as humanity grew more prosperous. Subjugated nations won their liberty; the universality of human rights was enshrined into laws; and billions were lifted out of poverty.

However, in parallel with all these breakthroughs, mankind’s age-old pressures on the natural environment surged massively in scale, scope, and pace.

The stability of the only physical state of the planet that has supported human development since the last ice age has come into question. The world’s leading scientific minds laid bare the advent of a new era, called the Anthropocene, by attesting incontrovertible evidence that, as a consequence of our actions, the climate is changing.

In just a few months, the leaders of our time will gather in Paris to engage in a grand effort to preserve the conditions for the life on Earth as we know it.

Reaching a truly equitable, just, and comprehensive climate treaty will no doubt be a tall order. COP21 is not taking place in a geopolitical vacuum—we live in a world of great disparities, burdened by multiplying challenges. And there are profound disagreements on how they should be addressed.

We all know that here and elsewhere, our ability to work together on great many issues is being seriously tested. Few of our current problems may be resolved overnight. And new ones will surely arise, capturing much of our attention and energy.

Nonetheless, an historic assignment is upon us—not only on the tricky road to Paris, but also on the much longer one that leads from it: the implementation of the future treaty—by all and in full.

We shall have to keep our focus despite all the other discords, for this endeavor can bare no dissent and no opt outs. The climate knows not of borders and nations, and makes no distinction between races or creeds. As a great moral leader has reminded us recently, “the climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all.”

To mend what has been ravaged, we shall all have to come together in solidarity; we shall all have to bear our commensurate share of the burden; and we shall all have to do our duty with unreserved tenacity. For we must bequeath to the generations of tomorrow the planetary conditions for their sustainability—so they too get a chance to thrive and prosper, and build and dream.

Thank you, Mr. President, for the opportunity to address the General Assembly on this important occasion.

June 29, 2015

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