The U.N. Environment chief says the world must think long-term.

Oct 5, 2012 (Reuters) – It is essential that the financial industry thinks long-term in order for the U.N. to address the climate crisis. Inger Andersen is the executive director of U.N. Tuesday’s statement was made by Inger Andersen, executive director of the U.N. Environment Programme.

“We can chop the proverbial tree and still have a great quarterly return. We can fish empty oceans and still have a great quarterly return. But we must think about the long-term,” Andersen said at the Reuters Impact conference.

She stated that the only way to end poverty and create healthy economies is to solve the “three planet crises”: climate change, loss biodiversity, pollution, and waste.

She said, “Let’s be very clear: Loss biodiversity means loss of the planets ability sustain us.”

“When you lose animals — and we are on track to lose a quarter of the 7.8 species we have on the planet if the current course is continued — if these things are removed, the ecosystem cannot continue.”

Andersen, who has less than a month before the COP26 U.N. conference in Glasgow (Scotland), said it was “completely inacceptable” that so little progress had been made in over a quarter century of global climate negotiations.

She demanded that the COP26 harmonise the rules for the world’s global carbon markets – a highly contentious topic – and establish a price for carbon emissions which takes into account their full environmental impact.

Andersen, who is UNEP’s leader since 2019, said that a global carbon market with proper oversight would be a powerful tool to combat climate change.

“Right now carbon is way too expensive, it’s ridiculous.”

She expressed hope that COP26 would make progress on financing adaptation and mitigation measures for countries most affected by climate change, namely those with the lowest greenhouse gases emissions.

“Poorer nations will be hit hard and will need the adaptation finance in place.”

Reporting by Andrea Januta. Editing and editing by Kevin Liffey

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