Global Climate Action summit: Hungarian president calls for ‘more ambitious’ commitments against climate change

Protecting the Earth’s climate requires “more ambitious commitments” than those made as part of the Paris Agreement, President János Áder said on the sidelines of the Global Climate Action summit in San Francisco late on Thursday.

Áder expressed dissatisfaction with the implementation of the Paris Agreement and called for action to prevent the process from slowing down.

He noted California Governor Jerry Brown’s Under 2 movement, supported by states, provinces or cities representing as many as 1.3 billion people, saying their commitment to reducing emissions by 80-95 percent could bring about significant results.

Áder insisted that

the US decision to quit the Paris Agreement would not disable its goals. “Apart from California, 17 other states think that we must proceed and increase commitments.”

Earlier on Thursday, Áder met Nicholas Stern, former economist of the World Bank, and quoted him as saying that using modern technologies to avoid climate change could bring about “a new industrial revolution” and put the economies of countries tapping that opportunity on a growth path.