International News

Bonn, Nov 15 (AFP/APP):World leaders descended on Bonn Wednesday to re-energise climate talks hamstrung by America’s rejection of a planet rescue plan the rest of the world is fighting hard to put into action. Labelling climate change “the defining threat of our time”, UN chief Antonio Guterres said continued investment in atmosphere-fouling fossil fuels guaranteed an “unsustainable future”. “Ultimately, there is only one ambition that matters — to build a secure world of peace, prosperity, dignity and opportunity for all people on a healthy planet,” he told dignitaries and bureaucrats at the annual UN climate conference. “The world counts on your wisdom and foresight.” Despite announcing in June it will withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the United States has a delegation at the Bonn talks, where rules for executing the pact on winding down Earth-warming greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal, oil and gas are being drawn up. The US presence is not universally appreciated, especially after White House officials hosted a sideline event on Monday defending continued fossil fuel use. On Wednesday, Guterres, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived to lead a diplomatic drive to revitalise negotiations that have become stuck on finance — an old bugbear of the UN process. Macron and Merkel were due to address the conference in the afternoon in the presence of some 25 heads of state and government and dozens of ministers of energy and the environment.