Antonio Guterres

So let us say it loud and clear, we will not give ground. We will not turn back. We will push back against the pushback. And we will keep pushing. For wholesale change. For rapid change ... our world needs, starting by addressing the imbalance in power relations.

This is a defining moment for the European Union, and it now has no other choice but to mobilize full force around this crisis. The only way to solve this problem is for the Union and all member states to implement a common strategy, based on responsibility, solidarity and trust.

Nature is angry. And we fool ourselves if we think we can fool nature, because nature always strikes back, and around the world nature is striking back with fury, there is a cost to everything. But the biggest cost is doing nothing. The biggest cost is subsidising a dying fossil fuel industry, building more and more coal plants, and denying what is plain as day: that we are in a deep climate hole, and to get out we must first stop digging.