[김현서] A speech by His Majesty The King at the opening of COP28

[김현서]

A speech by His Majesty The King at the opening of COP28, Dubai, U.A.E

Speaker : King Charles 

Word Count : 327

Glossary

1. COP21

2. Paris Agreement : 파리기후협약

3. COP28

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Eight years ago, I was most touched to be asked to speak at the opening of COP21 in Paris, which of course culminated in the Paris Agreement; a landmark moment of hope and optimism, when nations put differences to one side for the common good. I pray with all my heart that COP28 will be another critical turning point towards genuine transformational action at a time when, already, as scientists have been warning for so long, we are seeing alarming tipping points being reached.

I have spent a large proportion of my life trying to warn of the existential threats facing us over global warming, climate change and biodiversity loss. But I was not alone.

All these decades later, and despite all the attention, there is thirty percent more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere now than there was back then, and almost forty per cent more methane. Some important progress has been made, but it worries me greatly that we remain so dreadfully far off track as our report demonstrates so graphically.

The dangers are no longer distant risks. I have seen across the Commonwealth, and beyond, countless communities which are unable to withstand repeated shocks, whose lives and livelihoods are laid waste by climate change. Surely real action is required to stem the growing toll of its most vulnerable victims

As I have tried to say on many occasions, unless we rapidly repair and restore Nature’s unique economy, based on harmony and balance, which is our ultimate sustainer, our own economy and survivability will be imperilled.

Records are now being broken so often that we are perhaps becoming immune to what they are really telling us. When we see the news that this last Northern Hemisphere Summer, for instance, was the warmest global average temperature on record, we need to pause to process what this actually means: we are taking the natural world outside balanced norms and limits, and into dangerous, uncharted territory.