Spanish singer Sanz urges climate action

Famous Spanish musician, singer and composer, Alejandro Sanz on Monday appealed to world leaders gathered in the Spanish capital to take urgent action to fight climate change.

In a video message ahead of the two-day high-level segment of the UN Climate Change Conference or COP25 in Madrid, beginning on Tuesday, Sanz, who has won 17 Latin Grammy Awards and three Grammy Awards, has called on world leaders to act on climate change.

"I want to tell you, what you and I have in common. The planet is precious resource, but we have long overshot its limits," the singer said.

Also speaking at the opening of the high-level segment will be COP25 President Carolina Schmidt, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa, World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas, UN General Assembly President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande and Spanish Minister for Ecological Transition Teresa Ribera.

The singer, who is famed for his flamenco-influenced ballads, said, "The earth is our home but it does not belong to us. We are borrowing it to live."

"The next generations have every right to live and enjoy it. Just like you and I have done. Climate change is here and will stay with us. The Poles are melting. There is little time left but all is not lost," an optimistic Sanz said in Spanish.

Urging the global leaders to show the way forward and live by example, he said, "All of us can and must act as well."

"Do it for you, do it for the people you love the most. It is time to act," he added.

National statements from heads of state and government, statements on behalf of groups, ministers and heads of delegations will be delivered with the opening of the high-level segment to the 25th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that began on December 2.

The high-level segment will then continue on December 11 with remaining national statements from ministers and heads of delegations, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organisations.

The COP25 is being held in the backdrop of climate impacts biting globally, believe climate experts.

Indian Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar, who is leading the delegation, told this visiting correspondent here that India is participating with a constructive and positive outlook and working towards protecting long-term development interests.

He will be delivering his address in the high-level segment on December 11.

With 197 Parties, the UNFCCC has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement.

The main aim of the Paris Agreement is to keep a global average temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The UNFCCC is also the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The ultimate objective of all agreements under the UNFCCC is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system, in a timeframe which allows ecosystems to adapt naturally and enables sustainable development.

(Vishal Gulati is in Madrid to cover COP25. He can be contacted at vishal.g@.in)

( With inputs from IANS )