UK prime minister Boris Johnson raised alarm bells over the climate crisis, calling on global leaders to “grow up.”
Johnson stressed the urgent need to tackle the climate change, as the world faces a now-or-never moment to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5C (2.7F) above pre-industrial levels.
“If we keep on the current track then the temperatures will go up by 2.7 degrees or more by the end of the century, never mind what that will do to the ice floes,” Johnson told the UN General Assembly on Wednesday night.
“We will see desertification, drought, crop failure, and mass movements of humanity on a scale not seen before. Not because of some unforeseen natural event or disaster, but because of us, because of what we are doing now.”
Johnson used his speech to urge fellow global leaders to act ahead of the next climate summit.
Britain is due to host COP26 in the Scottish city of Glasgow in six weeks’ time.
‘The Glasgow COP26 summit is the turning point for humanity,’ Johnson said.
He went on to claim the Muppets character Kermit the Frog was wrong when he sang: ‘It’s not easy being green’.
The summit is expected to be the most important meeting on the crisis since the 2015
Paris summit.
