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6 Example Speeches on Climate Change

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time, affecting every corner of the globe and every aspect of our lives.

As a speaker, addressing this topic can be challenging, but it’s also an opportunity to inspire action and create meaningful change.

Example Speeches on Climate Change

In this article, we’ll explore six example speeches on climate change, each tailored to different audiences and occasions.

Whether you’re looking for a short, impactful speech or a longer, more in-depth exploration of the issue, you’ll find inspiration and guidance here.

So, let’s get started and see how we can use the power of words to tackle one of the greatest challenges of our generation.

Speech 1: A Call to Action (Short – 300 words)

Friends, we gather here today because our planet is in crisis. The science is clear: climate change is real, it’s happening now, and it’s caused by human activity. We’ve seen the devastating effects all around us – from rising sea levels and more frequent natural disasters to droughts, famines, and the loss of biodiversity. But we also know that it’s not too late to act. We have the power to change course, to build a more sustainable future for ourselves and for generations to come.

So, what can we do? First, we must recognize that every action counts. From the choices we make as individuals – like reducing our energy consumption and waste – to the policies we support as citizens, we all have a role to play. Second, we must hold our leaders accountable. We need bold, decisive action at every level of government to transition to clean energy, protect vulnerable communities, and build resilience against the impacts of climate change.

But most importantly, we must act together. Climate change is a global problem that requires global solutions. We must stand united, across borders and differences, in our commitment to this fight. Because when we work together, there’s nothing we can’t achieve.

So let us leave here today with a renewed sense of purpose. Let us go out into the world and be the change we wish to see. Let us build a future where our planet thrives, where our communities are resilient, and where every person has the chance to live with dignity and hope. The time for action is now – let’s get to work.

— END OF SPEECH —

Commentary: This short speech is a powerful call to action on climate change. It acknowledges the severity of the problem, highlights the importance of individual and collective action, and ends with an inspiring vision for the future. This speech would be suitable for a rally, a community event, or any occasion where you want to motivate people to get involved in the fight against climate change.

Speech 2: The Business Case for Climate Action (Medium-length – 500 words)

As business leaders, we have a unique opportunity – and a profound responsibility – to drive the transition to a low-carbon economy. For too long, we’ve treated climate change as a distant threat, something to be dealt with in the future. But the reality is that the impacts of climate change are already being felt, and they pose significant risks to our businesses, our communities, and our planet.

The good news is that tackling climate change isn’t just the right thing to do – it’s also good for business. By investing in clean energy, sustainable supply chains, and climate-resilient infrastructure, we can not only reduce our environmental impact but also create new opportunities for growth and innovation.

Consider the facts: renewable energy is now cheaper than fossil fuels in many parts of the world, and the cost continues to fall. Companies that embrace sustainability are seeing increased customer loyalty, employee satisfaction, and investor confidence. And as governments around the world implement policies to drive the transition to a low-carbon economy, businesses that are ahead of the curve will be well-positioned to thrive.

But we can’t do it alone. We need policymakers to create the right incentives and frameworks to support our efforts. We need consumers to demand sustainable products and services. And we need every business, large and small, to join us in this critical mission.

So, let us seize this moment. Let us lead by example, showing the world that sustainability and profitability can go hand in hand. Let us work together to build a future where businesses prosper, communities thrive, and our planet is protected for generations to come. The path ahead won’t be easy, but with courage, collaboration, and a commitment to doing what’s right, we can rise to the challenge and create a better world for all.

Commentary: This speech makes a compelling business case for climate action. It acknowledges the risks that climate change poses to businesses, highlights the opportunities that come with the transition to a low-carbon economy and calls on business leaders to lead by example. This speech would be suitable for a business conference, a sustainability event, or any occasion where you want to encourage businesses to take action on climate change.

Speech 3: The Moral Imperative of Climate Action (Long – 700 words)

My fellow citizens, we stand at a crossroads in human history. The choices we make in the coming years will determine the fate of our planet and the future of generations to come. And there is no greater moral imperative of our time than to act on climate change.

For too long, we have treated our planet as if it were an endless resource, a dumping ground for our waste and pollution. We have prioritized short-term gains over long-term sustainability, and we have turned a blind eye to the consequences of our actions. But now, those consequences are catching up with us.

We see it in the rising seas that threaten our coastal cities, the wildfires that ravage our forests, and the droughts that decimate our crops. We see it in the mass extinction of species, the acidification of our oceans, the spread of disease, and conflict. Climate change is not just an environmental issue – it is a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented proportions.

And yet, even in the face of this overwhelming evidence, there are still those who deny the reality of climate change, who prioritize profit over people, who cling to the status quo rather than embracing the need for change. But we cannot afford to be complacent or complicit any longer.

As a global community, we have a moral obligation to act. We must protect the most vulnerable among us, to safeguard the planet for future generations, to ensure that every person has the right to a livable future. This is not a partisan issue – it is a human issue, and it demands a human response.

So, what can we do? We must start by recognizing that climate change is a systemic problem that requires systemic solutions. We need to transform the way we produce and consume energy, the way we grow and distribute food, and the way we move and build and live. We need to invest in clean technologies, sustainable infrastructure, in resilient communities. And we need to do it now, with the urgency and the scale that this crisis demands.

But we cannot do it alone. We need every nation, every sector, and every individual to be part of the solution. We need to build a global movement for change, one that transcends borders and ideologies, one that unites us in our common humanity and our shared destiny.

So let us rise to this challenge. Let us summon the courage and the compassion to act, not just for ourselves, but for all those who will come after us. Let us be the generation that saves our planet, that secures a livable future for all. The time for action is now – let us meet this moment with the urgency and the moral clarity it demands. Thank you.

Commentary: This speech frames climate action as a moral imperative, highlighting the devastating impacts of climate change and the urgent need for systemic solutions. It calls on individuals, nations, and sectors to unite in a global movement for change and emphasizes the importance of acting with compassion and urgency. This speech would be suitable for a keynote address, a commencement speech, or any occasion where you want to inspire people to take bold, principled action on climate change.

Speech 4: The Role of Youth in Combating Climate Change (Long – 800 words)

Young people of the world, you are the inheritors of a planet in peril. You are the ones who will bear the brunt of the climate crisis, and you are the ones who have the most to lose if we fail to act. But you are also the ones who have the most to gain if we succeed – and you are the ones who have the power to lead us to a better future.

For too long, the voices of youth have been marginalized in the climate debate. You have been told that you are too young to understand, too naive to make a difference, and too powerless to effect change. But I stand here today to tell you that nothing could be further from the truth.

You are not just the future – you are the present. You are the ones who are taking to the streets, organizing strikes and protests, demanding action from those in power. You are the ones who are innovating new solutions, creating new businesses, and driving new technologies. You are the ones who are shaping the culture, influencing the conversation, setting the agenda for change.

And you are not alone. Around the world, young people are rising and speaking out, united in their determination to create a better, more sustainable future. From the school strikers of Europe to the Indigenous activists of the Amazon, from the green entrepreneurs of Africa to the climate justice advocates of Asia, you are part of a global movement that is growing stronger every day.

But the road ahead will not be easy. You will face resistance from those who benefit from the status quo, from those who are invested in the fossil fuel economy, and from those who are afraid of change. You will face setbacks and challenges, moments of doubt and despair.

But you must not lose heart. You must remember that you have the truth on your side, the science on your side, and the moral imperative on your side. You must remember that you are not fighting for yourselves alone, but for all those who will come after you, for the generations yet unborn.

So let us stand together, young and old, rich and poor, from every corner of the globe. Let us build a movement that is inclusive, intersectional, and unstoppable. Let us demand action from our leaders, hold them accountable for their promises, and work to elect those who share our vision for a just and sustainable future.

And let us never forget that the power to change the world lies within each of us. Every action we take, every choice we make, every voice we raise – no matter how small – can make a difference. So let us go forth from this place with courage, with conviction, with hope. Let us be the change we wish to see in the world. Let us create a future that we can be proud of, a future that we can pass on to those who come after us. The time is now – let us seize it together.

Commentary: This speech is a powerful call to action for young people, emphasizing their crucial role in the fight against climate change. It acknowledges the challenges they face but also highlights their unique strengths and the importance of building an inclusive, intersectional movement. The speech ends with an inspiring message of hope and empowerment, urging young people to seize the moment and create a better future for all. This speech would be ideal for a youth climate conference, a university event, or any occasion where you want to mobilize and inspire young people to take action on climate change.

Speech 5: The Intersection of Climate Change and Social Justice (Lengthy – 1,000 words)

Friends, we have gathered here today to discuss one of the most pressing issues of our time – the intersection of climate change and social justice. For too long, these two issues have been treated as separate and distinct, as if the impacts of a warming planet could be neatly compartmentalized from the struggles for equality, dignity, and human rights. But the truth is that climate change is not just an environmental crisis – it is a human rights crisis, and it is a crisis that disproportionately affects the most vulnerable and marginalized among us.

Consider the facts: the communities that are most impacted by climate change – low-income communities, communities of color, and indigenous communities – are also the communities that have contributed the least to the problem. They are the ones who bear the brunt of the rising seas and the extreme weather events, the ones who suffer the most from the health impacts of air and water pollution, and the ones who are most likely to be displaced by drought, famine, and conflict.

And yet, these are also the communities that have been systematically excluded from the decision-making processes that shape our response to the climate crisis. Their voices have been silenced, their needs have been ignored, and their rights have been denied. This is not just an injustice – it is a fundamental failure of our democracy and our humanity.

But we cannot address climate change without addressing these underlying inequities. We cannot build a sustainable future on a foundation of inequality and exploitation. We cannot solve a global problem with solutions that leave entire populations behind.

So, what do we do? We start by recognizing that climate justice and social justice are inextricably linked. We cannot have one without the other. We need to approach the climate crisis with an intersectional lens, understanding how it intersects with issues of race, class, gender, and power.

We need to center the voices and experiences of those who are most impacted by climate change and ensure that they have a seat at the table when decisions are being made. We need to invest in community-led solutions, resilience, and adaptation strategies that are grounded in local knowledge and experience.

We need to hold corporations and governments accountable for their role in perpetuating the climate crisis and the inequities that it exacerbates. We need to demand a just transition to a clean energy economy, one that creates good jobs and opportunities for all, not just a privileged few.

And we need to build a movement that is truly inclusive and intersectional, one that recognizes the interconnectedness of all our struggles and all our hopes. We need to stand in solidarity with those who are fighting for justice on all fronts – from the streets of Ferguson to the forests of the Amazon, from the mines of Appalachia to the island nations of the Pacific.

This is not an easy task. It will require us to confront uncomfortable truths, challenge entrenched systems of power, to build new alliances and coalitions. But it is a task that we must undertake, for the sake of our planet and our people.

Because in the end, we are all in this together. We all share one planet, one home, one future. And we all have a role to play in shaping that future – not just for ourselves, but for generations to come.

So let us leave here today with a renewed commitment to justice, equity, to solidarity. Let us work to build a world where every person has the right to a livable planet, a world where the benefits and burdens of climate action are shared fairly and equitably, and a world where we recognize our common humanity and our common fate.

The road ahead will not be easy, but we have the power to choose the path we take. Let us choose the path of justice, the path of compassion, the path of a sustainable and equitable future for all. Thank you.

Commentary: This speech powerfully articulates the intersection of climate change and social justice, highlighting how the impacts of climate change disproportionately affect marginalized communities. It calls for an intersectional approach to climate action, one that centers the voices and experiences of those most impacted and invests in community-led solutions. The speech emphasizes the need for accountability, a just transition, and an inclusive, intersectional movement. It ends with a stirring call to action, urging the audience to commit to justice, equity, and solidarity in the fight for a sustainable future. This speech would be suitable for a social justice conference, an environmental justice event, or any occasion where you want to highlight the systemic inequities of the climate crisis and inspire people to take intersectional action.

Speech 6: Climate Change and the Future of Humanity (Lengthy – 1,000 words or more)

My fellow humans, we stand at a pivotal moment in the history of our species. The choices we make in the coming years will determine not just the fate of our planet, but the fate of humanity itself. And there is no greater threat to our future than the reality of climate change.

For decades, we have known that our addiction to fossil fuels, our relentless consumption and waste, and our disregard for the natural world – all these things have been pushing our planet to the brink. We have seen the evidence in the melting of the polar ice caps, the bleaching of the coral reefs, and the extinction of countless species. We have felt the impacts of the rising temperatures and the extreme weather events, the droughts and the floods, and the wildfires that have become the new normal.

And yet, even in the face of this overwhelming evidence, we have been slow to act. We have been held back by the forces of inertia and denial, by the vested interests of those who profit from the status quo, and by the short-sightedness of those who prioritize present gains over future sustainability.

But we cannot afford to wait any longer. The science is clear: if we do not take urgent and dramatic action to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, transition to a clean energy economy, to transform the way we live work, and consume – then we risk crossing irreversible tipping points that will lead to catastrophic and irreversible climate change.

This is not just an environmental issue – it is an existential threat to human civilization as we know it. It is a threat to our food and water security, to our public health and safety, to our economic stability and geopolitical security. It is a threat to the very foundations of our society and our way of life.

But it is also an opportunity – an opportunity to reimagine our relationship with the natural world, to build a more just and equitable society, and to create a future that is not just sustainable, but regenerative and thriving.

We have the tools and the knowledge to make this transition. We have renewable energy technologies, sustainable agriculture practices, the green infrastructure solutions. We have the economic models and policy frameworks, the social movements, and cultural shifts.

What we need now is the political will and the moral courage to act. We need leaders who are willing to stand up to the fossil fuel industry, to the corporate polluters, to the forces of greed and exploitation. We need citizens who are willing to demand change, to hold their governments accountable, and to make the necessary sacrifices and investments.

And we need to do it together – as a global community, as a human family. Because climate change knows no borders, no boundaries, no divisions of race or class or creed. It affects us all, and it will take all of us to solve it.

So let us rise to this challenge, let us seize this moment. Let us look to the examples of those who have gone before us – the Indigenous peoples who have stewarded this land for generations, the environmental activists who have fought tirelessly for change, and the scientists and innovators who have given us the tools to build a better world.

Let us draw strength from their courage and their wisdom, and let us add our voices and actions to the growing chorus for change. Let us build an unstoppable movement, a movement that is rooted in love, justice, and compassion for all living things.

And let us never forget what is at stake – the future of our children and grandchildren, the future of all the species with whom we share this planet, and the future of life itself. We are the guardians of this precious and fragile world, and it is our sacred duty to protect it.

So let us go forth from this place with a renewed sense of purpose and urgency. Let us work to create a world where clean air, water, and soil are not luxuries but fundamental rights, where renewable energy powers our homes and our economies, and where nature is valued, protected, and restored.

Let us create a world where every person has the opportunity to thrive, where poverty and inequality are relics of the past, and where justice and compassion are the guiding principles of our society. Let us create a world that is worthy of the sacrifices and the struggles of those who came before us, and that is a testament to the boundless potential of the human spirit.

This is our moment, our opportunity, our responsibility. Let us rise to meet it with everything we have, with all the love, courage, and determination in our hearts. For the sake of our planet, for the sake of our children, for the sake of our very survival – let us act, and let us act now. Thank you.

Commentary: This speech is a powerful and impassioned call to action on climate change, framing it as an existential threat to human civilization and a moral imperative for urgent and dramatic action. It highlights the devastating impacts of climate change, the forces of inertia and denial that have held us back, and the opportunities for a just and sustainable transition. The speech calls for political will, moral courage, and global solidarity in the face of this crisis and ends with a stirring vision of a world transformed by a movement rooted in love, justice, and compassion. This speech would be ideal for a major international conference, a UN summit, or any high-profile event where you want to galvanize global action on climate change and inspire people with a transformative vision of the future.

Climate change is a complex and intimidating challenge, but it is also an opportunity to build a better world.

By crafting powerful and persuasive speeches, we can inspire others to action, mobilize communities and movements, and create the political will for change.

Whether you’re speaking to a small group or a global audience, remember to frame the issue in terms that resonate with your listeners, highlight both the urgency of the crisis and the opportunities for solutions, and call people to action with a vision of a just and sustainable future.

Together, we can rise to meet this moment and create a world that is worthy of the generations to come.

Global Warming Speech for Students and Children

3 minutes speech on global warming.

Global Warming is definitely the single greatest environmental challenge that the planet earth is facing at present. It is essential to understand the gravity of the situation. The fuel which you use in order to power your homes, cars, businesses and more is heating up the planet faster than expected. We are recording the hottest days and decades ever. What’s alarming is that the temperature of the earth has climbed to the highest point it has ever been in the past 12,000 years. It only gets worse from here if we don’t stop it now.

Impact of Global Warming

As the planet is getting hotter, we need to collectively act right now instead of waiting for more. The primary cause of global warming is fossil fuels. Human beings are addicted to burning them which produces coal, oil, greenhouse gases and more.

The power plants, cards, and industries produce Carbon dioxide which stays in the atmosphere for 5 decades or more. This is the reason why the temperature of the earth rises.

Due to this rise in temperature, the oceans are rising and the coral reefs are dying. Many aquatic species are going extinct while the glaciers are melting. You will be surprised to know that Greenland is losing 20% more mass than it receives from new snowfall.

Thus, it will keep shrinking as the earth warms. Moreover, extreme weather patterns are for everyone to see. The heatwaves, droughts, floods, are now taking place with greater intensity and frequency.

The hurricanes are doubling up in nature in terms of occurrence and the Katrina Hurricane is enough to prove this point. Further, the Greenland and Western Antarctic ice sheets are at great risk of melting completely. Please note that these two ice sheets presently hold around 20% of the Earth’s freshwater. The rise in sea levels will damage the coastal areas globally. Moreover, the regularity of hurricanes, tornadoes, and others may become more volatile spreading malaria and other deadly diseases.

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Ways to Tackle Global Warming

The time is now to do something to prevent global warming, otherwise, it will be irreversible. Electricity and transportation contribute largely to global warming, so we must begin there. It is important to note that there is no silver bullet and we must all come together to tackle global warming as a whole. Every home, business, industry, individual effort is required to tackle this crisis.

As coal produces tons of Carbon dioxide annually, we need to find ways to clean up coal. We can also tackle global warming by beginning with putting agriculture in the system. We must encourage farmers to adapt to greener farming practices. For instance, they must till land less often, and plant trees on vacant land.

Moreover, the same regime needs to be applied to other industrial producers of carbon dioxide. For instance, the transportation industry of cars, trucks, planes and more produce 28% of the carbon dioxide emissions. Thus, we must reduce these emissions by enhancing the fuel efficiency of the vehicles. Also, it is high time we got rid of oil and gasoline-based fuels and opt for greener alternatives.

On an individual level also, we must work to adopt a greener and healthier lifestyle. Try to drive less and walk more or take public transport. Get into the habit of recycling and avoid unnecessary wastage of goods. Save electricity by switching off appliances when not in use.  Most importantly, plant a tree as a single tree can absorb one ton of carbon dioxide in its lifetime. Thus, remember, the change begins with you.

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Gretchen Frazee Gretchen Frazee

• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/read-climate-activist-greta-thunbergs-speech-to-the-un

Read climate activist Greta Thunberg’s speech to the UN

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg chastised world leaders Monday for failing younger generations by not taking sufficient steps to stop climate change.

“You have stolen my childhood and my dreams with your empty words,” Thunberg said at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York.

Thunberg traveled to the U.S. by sailboat last month so she could appear at the summit. She and other youth activists led international climate strikes on Friday in an attempt to garner awareness ahead of the UN’s meeting of political and business leaders.

Read Greta Thunberg’s speech below:

This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you?

You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words, and yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering, people are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you?

For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you’re doing enough when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight? You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency, but no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil and that I refuse to believe.

The popular idea of cutting our emissions in half in ten years only gives us a 50 percent chance of staying below 1.5 degrees and the risk of setting up irreversible chain reactions beyond human control. Fifty percent may be acceptable to you, but those numbers do not include tipping points most feedback loops, additional warming hidden by toxic air pollution, or the aspects of equity and climate justice.

They also rely on my generation sucking hundreds of billions of tons of your CO2 out of the air with technologies that barely exist. So a 50 percent risk is simply not acceptable to us. We who have to live with the consequences. To have a 67 percent chance of staying below the 1.5 degree of temperature rise, the best odds given by the IPCC, the world had 420 gigatons of CO2 left to emit back on January 1, 2018.

Today that figure is already down to less than 350 gigatons. How dare you pretend that this can be solved with just business as usual and some technical solutions? With today’s emissions levels, that remaining CO2 that entire budget will be gone is less than 8 and a half years. There will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures here today because these numbers are too uncomfortable and you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is.

You are failing us, but young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say we will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this, right here, right now, is where we draw the line. The world is waking up, and change is coming whether you like it or not.

Gretchen Frazee is a Senior Coordinating Broadcast Producer for the PBS NewsHour.

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Greta Thunberg Ted Talk Transcript: School Strike For Climate

Climate activist Greta Thunberg gave a Ted Talk speech titled “School strike for climate – save the world by changing the rules” on December 12, 2018. Read the transcript of her speech here.

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Greta Thunberg: ( 00:07 ) When I was about eight years old, I first heard about something called climate change or global warming. Apparently that was something humans had created by our way of living. I was told to turn off the lights to save energy and to recycle paper to save resources. I remember thinking that it was very strange that humans who are an animal species among others could be capable of changing the earth’s climate. Because if we were and if it was really happening, we wouldn’t be talking about anything else. As soon as you turn on the TV, everything would be about that; headlines, radio, newspapers. You would never read or hear about anything else as if there was a world war going on. But no one ever talked about it. If burning fossil fuels was so bad that it threatened our very existence, how could we just continue like before? Why were the no restrictions? Why wasn’t it made illegal?

Greta Thunberg: ( 01:25 ) To me that did not add up. It was too unreal. So when I was 11, I became ill. I fell into depression. I stopped talking and I stopped eating. In two months, I lost about 10 kilos of weight. Later on, I was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, OCD and selective mutism. That basically means I only speak when I think it’s necessary. Now is one of those moments. For those of us who are on the spectrum, almost everything is black or white. We aren’t very good at lying and we usually don’t enjoy participating in the social game that the rest of you seem so fond of. I think in many ways that we autistic are the normal ones and the rest of the people are pretty strange, especially when it comes to the sustainability crisis where everyone keeps saying that climate change is an existential threat and the most important issue of all and yet they just carry on like before. I don’t understand that because if the emissions have to stop, then we must stop the emissions.

Greta Thunberg: ( 02:53 ) To me that is black or white. There are no gray areas when it comes to survival. Either we go on as a civilization or we don’t. We have to change. Rich countries like Sweden need to start reducing emissions by at least 15% every year. And that is so that we can stay below a two degree warming target. Yet as the IPCC have recently demonstrated, aiming instead for 1.5 degrees Celsius would significantly reduced the climate impacts, but we can only imagine what that means for reducing emissions. You would think the media and every one of our leaders would be talking about nothing else, but they never even mention it. Nor does anyone ever mention the greenhouse gases already locked in the system, nor that air pollution is hiding a warming so that when we stop burning fossil fuels, we already have an extra level of warming, perhaps as high as 0.5 to 1.1 degrees Celsius. Furthermore does hardly anyone speak about the fact that we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction with up to 200 species going extinct every single day.

Greta Thunberg: ( 04:16 ) That the extinction rate is today between 1000 and 10,000 times higher than what is seen as normal. Nor does hardly anyone ever speak about the aspect of equity or climate justice clearly stated everywhere in the Paris Agreement, which is absolutely necessary to make it work on a global scale. That means that rich countries need to get down to zero emissions within six to 12 years with today’s emission speed. And that is so that people in poorer countries can have a chance to heighten their standard of living by building some of the infrastructure that we have already built, such as roads, schools, hospitals, clean drinking water, electricity, and so on. Because how can we expect countries like India or Nigeria to care about the climate crisis if we who already have everything don’t care even a second about it, or our actual commitments to the Paris Agreement.

Greta Thunberg: ( 05:26 ) So why are we not reducing our emissions? Why are they in fact still increasing? Are we knowingly causing a mass extinction? Are we evil? No, of course not. People keep doing what they do because the vast majority doesn’t have a clue about the actual consequences of our everyday life and they don’t know what the rapid changes required. We will think we know and we will think everybody knows, but we don’t because how could we. If there really was a crisis, and if this crisis was caused by our emissions, you would at least see some signs, not just flooded cities, tens of thousands of dead people, the whole nations leveled to piles of torn down buildings. You would see some restrictions, but no, and no one talks about it.

Greta Thunberg: ( 06:34 ) There are no emergency meetings, no headlines, no breaking news. No one is acting as if we were in a crisis. Even most climate scientists or green politicians keep on flying around the world, eating meat and dairy. If I live to be 100, I will be alive in the year 2103. When you think about the future today, you don’t think beyond the year 2050. By then I will, in the best case, not even have lived half of my life. What happens next? The year 2078 I will celebrate my 75th birthday. If I have children or grandchildren, maybe they will spend that day with me. Maybe they will ask me about you, the people who were around back in 2018. Maybe they will ask why you didn’t do anything while there was still time to act.

Greta Thunberg: ( 07:47 ) What we do or don’t do right now will affect my entire life and the lives of my children and grandchildren. What we do or don’t do right now, me and my generation can’t undo in the future. So when school started in August of this year, I decided that this was enough. I sat myself down on the ground outside of the Swedish parliament. I school striked for the climate. Some people say that I should be in school instead. Some people say that I should study to become a climate scientist so that I can solve the climate crisis. But the climate crisis has already been solved. We already have all the facts and solutions, all we have to do is to wake up and change.

Greta Thunberg: ( 08:44 ) And why should I be studying for a future that soon will be no more when no one is doing anything whatsoever to save that future? And what is the point of learning facts in the school system when the most important facts given by the finest science of that same school system clearly means nothing to our politicians and our society? Some people say that Sweden is just a small country and that it doesn’t matter what we do. But I think that if a few children can get headlines all over the world just by not going to school for a few weeks, imagine what we could all do together if we wanted to.

Greta Thunberg: ( 09:30 ) Now we’re almost at the end of my talk and this is where people usually starts talking about hope, solar panels, wind power, circular economy, and so on. But I’m not going to do that. We’ve had 30 years of pep talking and selling positive ideas. And I’m sorry, but it doesn’t work because it you would have the emissions would have gone down by now, they haven’t. And yes, we do need hope. Of course, we do. But the one thing we need more than hope is action. Once we start to act, hope is everywhere. So instead of looking for hope, look for action. Then, and only then hope will come. Today we use 100 million barrels of oil every single day. There are no politics to change that. There are no rules to keep that oil in the ground. So we can’t save the world by playing by the rules because the rules have to be changed. Everything needs to change and it has to start today. Thank you.

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'How dare you': Transcript of Greta Thunberg's UN climate speech

Teenage activist denounces 'empty words' and lack of concrete solutions

Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunberg caused a stir at the United Nations on Monday with her blistering criticism of world leaders' inaction on climate change. The following is an edited transcript of her remarks.

My message is that we'll be watching you. This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you!

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Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg delivers scathing speech at U.N.

Teen environmental activist Greta Thunberg delivered an emotional and scathing speech at the United Nations on Monday, accusing world leaders of stealing her dreams and her childhood with their inaction on climate change.

"I shouldn't be up here. I should be back at school on the other side of the ocean," the 16-year-old from Sweden told the United Nations Climate Action Summit. "Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words."

Thunberg slammed the members of the U.N. for caring more about money and "fairytales of eternal economic growth" than collapsing ecosystems, mass extinctions and people suffering due to climate change.

"You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency, but no matter how sad and angry I am I do not want to believe that because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil, and that I refuse to believe," Thunberg said.

She also said that the "popular idea" of cutting emissions by 50 percent in 10 years only yields a 50 percent chance of keeping the earth's warming trend below the 1.5 degree Celsius threshold, which could set off "catastrophic chain reactions beyond human control" if breached.

"A 50 percent risk is simply not acceptable to us — we who have to live with the consequences," she said.

Thunberg said the earth’s remaining CO2 budget was rapidly dwindling — citing a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that said the planet has experienced a more than 70 gigaton deficit in the earth’s remaining CO2 budget since January 2018.

But Thunberg said leaders from the United Nations wouldn’t suggest more radical plans to reduce emissions because they are “still not mature enough to tell it like it is.”

“You are failing us but young people are starting to understand your betrayal,” Thunberg said. “The eyes of all future generations are upon you and if you choose to fail us, I say we will never forgive you.”

Late on Monday, President Donald Trump retweeted a video of her speech, saying she "seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future."

She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see! https://t.co/1tQG6QcVKO — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 24, 2019

Earlier, Thunberg tweeted that she and 15 other children from around the world had filed a legal complaint, claiming that some countries have violated an approximately 30-year-old human rights treaty.

"Today at 11:30 I and 15 other children from around the world filed a legal complaint against 5 nations over the climate crisis through the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child," Thunberg tweeted.

The complaint was filed against nations who have ratified the treaty and have the largest emissions, she wrote. Those nations are Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, and Turkey.

Following her speech, Thunberg's name began trending on Twitter, with many prominent figures and celebrities acknowledging her passion for the environment.

Thunberg arrived in the United States late last month after traveling across the Atlantic Ocean by sailboat in order to attend the climate summit.The trek, which took two weeks, was an emission-free way for Thunberg to travel from Europe to the United States.

News Dozens of climate change activists arrested during morning commute protests in D.C.

Thunberg sprung to global prominence when she was 15, after she held her first climate strike outside the Swedish parliament last year, according to the BBC . Thunberg's protest, immortalized in a now-viral photo , inspired dozens of other climate strikes across the globe and gave her the platform to speak before several international bodies, such as the World Economic Forum, where she told world leaders: "I don't want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic."

"I want you to feel the fear I feel every day," she said. "And then I want you to act."

On Friday, Thunberg led 150 countries in a youth-led Global Climate Strike , which saw millions taking to the streets around the world to demand action and an end to the era of fossil fuels. Thunberg marched in New York City, where she addressed thousands of strikers.

"This is an emergency," she told the crowd. "Our house is on fire."

Kalhan Rosenblatt is a reporter covering youth and internet culture for NBC News, based in New York.

Climate Action: It’s time to make peace with nature, UN chief urges

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The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, has described the fight against the climate crisis as the top priority for the 21st Century, in a passionate, uncompromising speech delivered on Wednesday at Columbia University in New York.

The landmark address marks the beginning of a month of UN-led climate action, which includes the release of major reports on the global climate and fossil fuel production, culminating in a climate summit on 12 December, the fifth anniversary of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.

Nature always strikes back

Mr. Guterres began with a litany of the many ways in which nature is reacting, with “growing force and fury”, to humanity’s mishandling of the environment, which has seen a collapse in biodiversity, spreading deserts, and oceans reaching record temperatures.

The link between COVID-19 and man-made climate change was also made plain by the UN chief, who noted that the continued encroachment of people and livestock into animal habitats, risks exposing us to more deadly diseases.

And, whilst the economic slowdown resulting from the pandemic has temporarily slowed emissions of harmful greenhouse gases, levels of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane are still rising, with the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere at a record high. Despite this worrying trend, fossil fuel production – responsible for a significant proportion of greenhouse gases – is predicted to continue on an upward path.

‘Time to flick the green switch’

The appropriate global response, said the Secretary-General, is a transformation of the world economy, flicking the “green switch” and building a sustainable system driven by renewable energy, green jobs and a resilient future.

One way to achieve this vision, is by achieving net zero emissions (read our feature story on net zero for a full explanation, and why it is so important). There are encouraging signs on this front, with several developed countries, including the UK, Japan and China, committing to the goal over the next few decades.

Mr. Guterres called on all countries, cities and businesses to target 2050 as the date by which they achieve carbon neutrality – to at least halt national increases in emissions - and for all individuals to do their part.

With the cost of renewable energy continuing to fall, this transition makes economic sense, and will lead to a net creation of 18 million jobs over the next 10 years. Nevertheless, the UN chief pointed out, the G20, the world’s largest economies, are planning to spend 50 per cent more on sectors linked to fossil fuel production and consumption, than on low-carbon energy.

Put a price on carbon

For years, many climate experts and activists have called for the cost of carbon-based pollution to be factored into the price of fossil fuels, a step that Mr. Guterres said would provide certainty and confidence for the private and financial sectors.

Companies, he declared, need to adjust their business models, ensuring that finance is directed to the green economy, and pension funds, which manage some $32 trillion in assets, need to step and invest in carbon-free portfolios.

Far more money, continued the Secretary-General, needs to be invested in adapting to the changing climate, which is hindering the UN’s work on disaster risk reduction. The international community, he said, has “both a moral imperative and a clear economic case, for supporting developing countries to adapt and build resilience to current and future climate impacts”.

Everything is interlinked

The COVID-19 pandemic put paid to many plans, including the UN’s ambitious plan to make 2020 the “super year” for buttressing the natural world. That ambition has now been shifted to 2021, and will involve a number of major climate-related international commitments.

These include the development of a plan to halt the biodiversity crisis; an Oceans Conference to protect marine environments; a global sustainable transport conference; and the first Food Systems Summit, aimed at transforming global food production and consumption.

Mr. Guterres ended his speech on a note of hope, amid the prospect of a new, more sustainable world in which mindsets are shifting, to take into account the importance of reducing each individual’s carbon footprint.

Far from looking to return to “normal”, a world of inequality, injustice and “heedless dominion over the Earth”, the next step, said the Secretary-General, should be towards a safer, more sustainable and equitable path, and for mankind to rethink our relationship with the natural world – and with each other.

You can read the full speech here .

António Guterres, UN Secretary-General December 2, 2020

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Transcript: Greta Thunberg's Speech At The U.N. Climate Action Summit

Climate activist Greta Thunberg, 16, addressed the U.N.'s Climate Action Summit in New York City on Monday. Here's the full transcript of Thunberg's speech, beginning with her response to a question about the message she has for world leaders.

"My message is that we'll be watching you.

"This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you!

"You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!

'This Is All Wrong,' Greta Thunberg Tells World Leaders At U.N. Climate Session

"For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you're doing enough, when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight.

"You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency. But no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil. And that I refuse to believe.

"The popular idea of cutting our emissions in half in 10 years only gives us a 50% chance of staying below 1.5 degrees [Celsius], and the risk of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control.

"Fifty percent may be acceptable to you. But those numbers do not include tipping points, most feedback loops, additional warming hidden by toxic air pollution or the aspects of equity and climate justice. They also rely on my generation sucking hundreds of billions of tons of your CO2 out of the air with technologies that barely exist.

"So a 50% risk is simply not acceptable to us — we who have to live with the consequences.

"To have a 67% chance of staying below a 1.5 degrees global temperature rise – the best odds given by the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] – the world had 420 gigatons of CO2 left to emit back on Jan. 1st, 2018. Today that figure is already down to less than 350 gigatons.

"How dare you pretend that this can be solved with just 'business as usual' and some technical solutions? With today's emissions levels, that remaining CO2 budget will be entirely gone within less than 8 1/2 years.

"There will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures here today, because these numbers are too uncomfortable. And you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is.

"You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you.

"We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.

"Thank you."

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News from the Columbia Climate School

You Asked: What’s the Best Way To Talk About Climate Change?

This story was published as part of our Climate Week NYC coverage. Learn more about Climate Week, read our other stories , and check out our upcoming events .

More Americans today are worried about climate change than ever before. From 2014 to 2020, the proportion of people who said they felt “alarmed” by global warming nearly tripled, according to research from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. But while public awareness for climate change is at an all-time high, dinner tables and debate stages can still feel boobytrapped with uncomfortable conversations. As part of State of the Planet’s “You Asked” series, Columbia scientists, journalists, and content creators spoke to why that is and how, through thoughtful climate communication, it doesn’t have to be.

The Evolution of Climate Communication

Climate scientist and Columbia Climate School professor Kate Marvel remembers when the main story about climate change had to do with whether or not it existed. Experts not unlike herself were pitted against skeptics on live television with little time for well-meaning discussion. The relatively few stories that did uplift climate science focused on what was happening in the natural world; for mainstream publications—and the majority of their readers—that meant climate change was synonymous with polar bears trapped on melting icebergs or rainforests burning in the Amazon.

Andrew Revkin was an environmental reporter with The New York Times for over 15 years before joining the Earth Institute as the director of the Initiative on Communication and Sustainability. He said the “newsroom norm” of  prioritizing what had happened that day made it difficult for issues with incremental developments and long-term time horizons to get top billing. It is only in the last handful of years, he noted, that climate change has begun to “infuse itself into other coverage,” with reporters writing about its impact on other pressing social issues such as public health and racial justice.

At the same time, climate solutions have become more visible and scalable, resulting in coverage that considershow the crisis can be mitigated, rather than just its consequences. Sabine Marx, former managing director of Columbia’s Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, said this shift has offered a psychological advantage in how the threat of climate change is communicated. “If I know there are steps that I can take towards actionable solutions, then I am much more likely to accept that there’s a problem,” she explained.

Climate communication has also been supported by the proliferation of new forms of media.  Sustainable Development student Lauren Ritchie , for example, founded the online platform The EcoJustice Project to make climate education and action more accessible to her generation.

“Gen Z is eager to learn and trying to get involved,” said Ritchie. “Most of the time, I’m making content based on what I would want to consume.”

Through social media features like Instagram Live, Ritchie provides her tens of thousands of followers with the opportunity to hear firsthand from people experiencing and responding to climate change in their communities.

How To Talk About Climate Change

Whether it is in person, in print, or online, climate communication often begins where it ends—with the audience. Marx explained that the experiences and values of a person inherently shape the way that they choose to engage with climate change, if at all. As a result, what resonates with a financial investor in New England might not be what resonates with a farmer in the Southeast.

“Knowing your audience will allow you to get beyond the information deficit so that you can look at filling a motivation deficit,” said Marx.

With no shortage of prospective audiences, climate communicators are constantly adapting the way that they frame the issue, a process that Marvel has found to be really empowering. “I don’t like feeling like a robot,” she said. “I think if you decide that there’s only one way to communicate about this, and you have to say the same thing over and over, then you’re going to burn out really quickly.”

Journalist Brian Kahn will use any combination of analogies, examples, and recent climate events in his work to connect with his readers—including the ones who send him hate mail. “As long as they’re not threatening my life, I’ll usually respond,” he said. “There’s a surprising amount of common ground between folks where you might not expect it.”

While finding common ground does not always equate to changing someone’s mind, Marvel noted that it is often the “human conversations without ulterior motives” that are the most productive. “When I talk about climate change, I want other people to understand this thing that’s really important to me,” she said, “and I want to learn from other people.”

It is a strategy that Marx refers to as “leading to ” climate change, rather than “leading with ” climate change. By starting with what is relatable—raising kids, owning a home, enjoying long walks on the beach—the impacts of climate change can be tethered to the shared reality of what is at stake. “We want to open the door with something that is meaningful to people, something that they care about,” she said.

The Future of Climate Communication

Given that climate communication has changed so much in the last two decades, it can be difficult to predict what will come next for the field as a whole. For Revkin, the future of climate communication will involve convening more stakeholders for in-depth conversations rather than writing for traditional media outlets.

“Climate and sustainability communication is different from telling another good story,” he said. “It’s getting brains into a place and having them think about something they might not otherwise, to collaborate on something that they can do more effectively together than alone.”

Through his “Sustain What?” webcast series, Revkin has already hosted a wide variety of experts to discuss issues ranging from global ecological restoration to the future of nuclear energy . In the last year and a half, he has recorded over 220 episodes that have engaged an estimated one million listeners.

The creation of new shared spaces like the “Sustain What?” webcast series can also function to champion greater diversity in climate discourse—something that Ritchie, Marvel, and Kahn stressed is desperately needed moving forward. “There is so much nuance to climate change,” said Ritchie, “and yet we tend to look at it through this privileged, white lens.”

Marvel agreed. “It’s an existential problem if climate communication is a monolith,” she said. “No one person or group of people is going to be able to talk to all communities, so we need to uplift diverse voices.”

Perhaps then the most important part of climate communication is that it keeps happening in more places with more people, especially in the face of what Kahn referred to as an “epidemic of climate silence” in the United States and around the world.

“People should not be afraid to talk about this stuff,” he said. “Having these conversations—even if they feel hard—is the first step to actually acting, passing climate policy, and getting this work done.”

Watch Elise Gout chat with Andy Revkin, Director of Columbia Climate School’s Initiative on Communication and Sustainability and host of the “Sustain What?” webcast series, on how to talk about climate change. 

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• Speech Writing /

Speech on Global Warming: Short and Long Speech

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• Jun 28, 2024

Speech is one of the great ways of expressing ourselves. It allows us to put forth and convey our thoughts. This skill can be polished in one’s school duration. One such opportunity we get is through ASL or Assessment of Speaking and Listening which is an integral part of the CBSE Class IX and X curriculum. In this section, we will go through the samples of speech on Global Warming, where we will discuss about its causes, impacts and consequences. This will students with their ASL, and academic assignments as well as increase students’ understanding of this global concern.

Speech on Global Warming for 2-3 minutes

Good morning esteemed authorities and the people present here. My name is Jake and today I am going to present before you a speech on Global Warming. I hope I will be able to convey my views on the same. 

Global warming is increasing at a fast rate and thus creating issues all around the globe. However, this is not the responsibility of a single country. All the countries are equally to blame for global warming. Global warming refers to the increase in the temperature of the Earth because of some of our daily activities. There are many reasons for global warming but the primary one is greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, etc. which trap the heat and light from our surroundings and sun.

This temperature rise ultimately affects the lives of human beings, plants, and animals. And we do have a huge share of contribution in them. A major volume of these gases is generated as a result of our daily activities which form an envelope around the Earth. This layer around the earth then absorbs the heat from the sun’s rays and gets trapped in the atmosphere. According to some statistics, by the year 2050, there would be about 4-5 degrees Celsius rise in the Earth’s temperature. It has already risen by 1 degree, which means that global warming is at its peak and that is an alarm for us to wake up. 

The rising sea levels, melting of the glaciers, acid rain, the killing of algae,  etc are just some of its effects that are taking a toll on life all around the globe. To reduce global warming, it requires a collaborative effort from all the countries. The Earth is calling out to us and we need to answer it to stop this ecological imbalance.

Also Read:- Save Environment Speech

Speech on Global Warming for 5-8 minutes

Good morning esteemed authorities, my name is Jake and today I am going to present before you a speech on Global Warming which is one of the most prominent issues in the present day. I hope that I will be able to convey my thoughts on the same. 

There are great changes happening day by day, some of them are noticeable to us while some are not. One such major change is in the rise in Earth’s temperature i.e. global warming which is often neglected. However, saying that it is happening slowly would be wrong because, over the last few years, its pace has increased. A great deal of the natural disasters that we are facing today such as earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones, storms, etc. are all because of global warming.

The length of seasons such as summer, winter, fall, etc is changing non-uniformly, and polar ice caps and glaciers are melting too. In some countries, snowfall amounts are decreasing, flowers bloom before time, birds are migrating to different regions, and hurricanes over the Atlantic are becoming more frequent. As a result of melting polar ice caps, the sea levels are rising continuously. And because of the stronger heat waves, human health is deteriorating too.

The effect of greenhouse gases is increasing because of human activities such as the burning of trees and fossil fuels, the use of refrigerators, microwaves, etc. Such activities release high volumes of CO2 and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere causing global warming. This causes even more water to vaporise, which absorbs even more heat from the sun, making Earth’s temperature even warmer. This has also affected rainfall patterns, ecology balance, etc. Global warming is a powerful demon that is affecting our lives to a great extent. Hence, we need to act now and solve this problem on an urgent basis. 

The steady rise in Earth’s temperature is also leading to draught in one region, and flood in the other. Due to drought, crop fields are not able to get adequate soil moisture absorption which leads to bad crop yielding. The worldwide demand for fruits, grains, and vegetables doesn’t become fulfilled because of this leading to food shortages all around the globe.

There is much more moisture that the warmer air holds in the atmosphere which eventually results in floods in many regions. Both, drought as well as flood, adversely affect crop production. Even in the marine ecosystem, the temperature of the oceans is rising which is leading to ecosystem imbalance there. Many marine organisms are unable to withstand this change and hence, perish. Even the microscopic ocean animals are of great importance as they primarily generate and release oxygen for us to breathe. Marine animals, as well as many coral reefs, are affected by global warming. 

All this focuses on the need of the hour for us to wake up and take necessary actions to stop and prevent global warming. This won’t be possible by a single country but will take a collective effort by all the nations to make a change. Earth is calling out to us, and we need to listen and act. 

Also Read: How to Prepare for UPSC in 6 Months?

Also Read: Environmental Conservation

Ans: Global warming is the increase in the temperature of the Earth because of some of our daily activities. This leads to its temperature rising. This rise is caused by greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, etc. which trap the heat and light from our surroundings and sun. This temperature rise ultimately affects the lives of human beings, plants, and animals. Global warming is increasing at a fast rate and thus creating issues all around the globe. A single country is not responsible for it. All the countries are equally to blame for global warming.

Ans: There are great changes happening day by day, some of them are noticeable to us while some are not. One such great change is in the rise in Earth’s temperature i.e. global warming which we are unable to notice. However, saying that it is happening slowly would be wrong because, over the last few years, its pace has increased. A great deal of the natural disasters that we are facing today such as earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones, storms, etc. are all because of global warming. The length of seasons such as summer, winter, fall, etc is changing non-uniformly, and polar ice caps and glaciers are melting too. In some countries, snowfall amounts are decreasing, flowers bloom before time, birds are migrating to different regions, and hurricanes over the Atlantic are becoming more frequent. As a result of melting polar ice caps, the sea levels are rising continuously. And because of the stronger heat waves, human health is deteriorating too. The greenhouse gas volume is increasing because of human activities such as the burning of trees and fossil fuels, the use of refrigerators, microwaves, etc. Such activities release high volumes of CO2 and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere causing global warming. This causes even more water to vaporize, which absorbs even more heat from the sun, making Earth’s temperature even warmer. This has also affected rainfall patterns, ecology balance, etc. Global warming is a powerful demon that is affecting our lives to a great extent. Hence, we need to act now and solve this problem on an urgent basis.  The steady rise in Earth’s temperature is also leading to draught in one region, and flood in the other. Due to drought, crop fields are not able to get adequate soil moisture absorption which leads to bad crop yielding. The worldwide demand for fruits, grains, and vegetables doesn’t become fulfilled because of this leading to food shortages all around the globe. There is much more moisture that the warmer air holds in the atmosphere than the cool air which eventually results in floods in many regions. Both, drought as well as flood, adversely affect crop production. Even in the marine ecosystem, the temperature of the oceans is rising which is leading to ecosystem imbalance there. Many marine organisms are unable to withstand this change and hence, perish. Even the microscopic ocean animals are of great importance as they primarily generate and release oxygen for us to breathe. Marine animals, as well as many coral reefs, are affected by global warming.

Ans: The 3 main causes of global warming are:- -Burning of fossil fuels -Deforestation -Industrial Developments

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With this, we come to the end of our blog on Speech on Global Warming. We hope we were able to provide you with all the necessary information you were looking for. For more information on such interesting speech topics for your school, visit our speech writing page and follow Leverage Edu.

Deepansh Gautam

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Remarks by President   Biden at the Virtual Leaders Summit on Climate Opening   Session

8:07 A.M. EDT   THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, Madam Vice President.   Good morning to all of our colleagues around the world — the world leaders who are taking part in this summit.  I thank you.  You know, your leadership on this issue is a statement to the people of your nation and to the people of every nation, especially our young people, that we’re ready to meet this moment.  And meeting this moment is about more than preserving our planet; it’s also about providing a better future for all of us.    That’s why, when people talk about climate, I think jobs.  Within our climate response lies an extraordinary engine of job creation and economic opportunity ready to be fired up.  That’s why I’ve proposed a huge investment in American infrastructure and American innovation to tap the economic opportunity that climate change presents our workers and our communities, especially those too often that have — left out and left behind.    I’d like to buil- — I want to build a — a critical infrastructure to produce and deploy clean technology — both those we can harness today and those that we’ll invent tomorrow.   I talked to the experts, and I see the potential for a more prosperous and equitable future.  The signs are unmistakable.  The science is undeniable.  But the cost of inaction is — keeps mounting.    The United States isn’t waiting.  We are resolving to take action — not only the — our federal government, but our cities and our states all across our country; small businesses, large businesses, large corporations; American workers in every field.    I see an opportunity to create millions of good-paying, middle-class, union jobs.    I see line workers laying thousands of miles of transmission lines for a clean, modern, resilient grid.    I see workers capping hundreds of thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells that need to be cleaned up, and abandoned coalmines that need to be reclaimed, putting a stop to the methane leaks and protecting the health of our communities.    I see autoworkers building the next generation of electric vehicles, and electricians installing nationwide for 500,000 charging stations along our highways.    I see engine- — the engineers and the construction workers building new carbon capture and green hydrogen plants to forge cleaner steel and cement and produce clean power.    I see farmers deploying cutting-edge tools to make soil of our — of our Heartland the next frontier in carbon innovation.    By maintaining those investments and putting these people to work, the United States sets out on the road to cut greenhouse gases in half — in half by the end of this decade.  That’s where we’re headed as a nation, and that’s what we can do if we take action to build an economy that’s not only more prosperous, but healthier, fairer, and cleaner for the entire planet.    You know, these steps will set America on a path of net-zero emissions economy by no later than 2050.  But the truth is, America represents less than 15 percent of the world’s emissions.  No nation can solve this crisis on our own, as I know you all fully understand.  All of us, all of us — and particularly those of us who represent the world’s largest economies — we have to step up.    You know, those that do take action and make bold investments in their people and clean energy future will win the good jobs of tomorrow, and make their economies more resilient and more competitive.    So let’s run that race; win more — win more sustainable future than we have now; overcome the existential crisis of our times.  We know just how critically important that is because scientists tell us that this is the decisive decade.  This is the decade we must make decisions that will avoid the worst consequences of a climate crisis.  We must try to keep the Earth’s temperature and — to an increase of — to 1.5 degrees Celsius.    You know, the world beyond 1.5 degrees means more frequent and intense fires, floods, droughts, heat waves, and hurricanes tearing through communities, ripping away lives and livelihoods, increasingly dire impacts to our public health.   It’s undeniable and undevi- — you know, the idea of accelerating and the reality that will come if we don’t move.  We can’t resign ourselves to that future.  We have to take action, all of us.    And this summit is our first step on the road we’ll travel together — God willing, all of us — to and through Glasgow this November and the U.N. Climate Conference — the Climate Change Conf- — Conference, you know, to set our world on a path to a secure, prosperous, and sustainable future.  The health of communities throughout the world depends on it.  The wellbeing of our workers depends on it.  The strength of our economies depends on it.    The countries that take decisive action now to create the industries of the future will be the ones that reap the economic benefits of the clean energy boom that’s coming.   You know, we’re here at this summit to discuss how each of us, each country, can set higher climate ambitions that will in turn create good-paying jobs, advance innovative technologies, and help vulnerable countries adapt to climate impacts.   We have to move.  We have to move quickly to meet these challenges.  The steps our countries take between now and Glasgow will set the world up for success to protect livelihoods around the world and keep global warming at a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius.  We must get on the path now in order to do that.    If we do, we’ll breathe easier, literally and figuratively; we’ll create good jobs here at home for millions of Americans; and lay a strong foundation for growth for the future.  And — and that — that can be your goal as well.  This is a moral imperative, an economic imperative, a moment of peril but also a moment of extraordinary possibilities.    Time is short, but I believe we can do this.  And I believe that we will do this.    Thank you for being part of the summit.  Thank you for the communities that you — and the commitments you have made, the communities you’re from.  God bless you all.    And I look forward to progress that we can make together today and beyond.  We really have no choice.  We have to get this done.   8:14 A.M. EDT

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Un headquarters, 27 july 2023, secretary-general's opening remarks at press conference on climate, antónio guterres.

The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived. Leaders must lead. No more hesitancy. No more excuses. No more waiting for others to move first. There is simply no more time for that. It is still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius and avoid the very worst of climate change. But only with dramatic, immediate climate action. 

A very good morning.   Humanity is in the hotseat.       Today, the World Meteorological Organization and the European Commission’s Copernicus Climate Change Service are releasing official data that confirms that July 2023 is set to be the hottest month ever recorded in human history. 

We don’t have to wait for the end of the month to know this.  Short of a mini-Ice Age over the next days, July 2023 will shatter records across the board.

According to the data released today, July has already seen the hottest three-week period ever recorded; the three hottest days on record; and the highest-ever ocean temperatures for this time of year.    The consequences are clear and they are tragic: children swept away by monsoon rains; families running from the flames; workers collapsing in scorching heat.   For vast parts of North America, Asia, Africa and Europe – it is a cruel summer.   For the entire planet, it is a disaster. 

And for scientists, it is unequivocal – humans are to blame. 

All this is entirely consistent with predictions and repeated warnings.

The only surprise is the speed of the change.

Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning.

The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived. 

The air is unbreathable.  The heat is unbearable.  And the level of fossil fuel profits and climate inaction is unacceptable.

Leaders must lead.    No more hesitancy. No more excuses. No more waiting for others to move first.   There is simply no more time for that.   It is still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius and avoid the very worst of climate change.   But only with dramatic, immediate climate action.   We have seen some progress.  A robust rollout of renewables.  Some positive steps from sectors such as shipping.    But none of this is going far enough or fast enough.   Accelerating temperatures demand accelerated action.    We have several critical opportunities ahead.    The Africa Climate Summit.  The G20 Summit.  The UN Climate Ambition Summit.  COP28.   But leaders – and particularly G20 countries responsible for 80% of global emissions – must step up for climate action and climate justice.   What does that mean in practice?   First, emissions.   We need ambitious new national emissions reduction targets from G20 members.   And we need all countries to take action in line with my Climate Solidarity Pact and Acceleration Agenda:   Hitting fast forward so that developed countries commit to reach net zero emissions as close as possible to 2040, and emerging economies as close as possible to 2050, with support from developed countries to do so.    And all actors must come together to accelerate a just and equitable transition from fossil fuels to renewables -- as we stop oil and gas expansion, and funding and licensing for new coal, oil and gas.   Credible plans must also be presented to exit coal by 2030 for OECD countries and 2040 for the rest of the world.    Ambitious renewable energy goals must be in line with the 1.5 degree limit.   And we must reach net zero electricity by 2035 in developed countries and 2040 elsewhere, as we work to bring affordable electricity to everyone on earth.   We also need action from leaders beyond governments.   I urge companies as well as cities, regions, and financial institutions to come to the Climate Ambition Summit with credible transition plans that are fully aligned with the United Nations’ net zero standard, presented by our High-Level Expert Group.    Financial institutions must end their fossil fuel lending, underwriting and investments and shift to renewables instead.    And fossil fuel companies must chart their move towards clean energy, with detailed transition plans across the entire value chain:   No more greenwashing.  No more deception.  And no more abusive distortion of anti-trust laws to sabotage net zero alliances.   Second, adaptation.   Extreme weather is becoming the new normal.    All countries must respond and protect their people from the searing heat, fatal floods, storms, droughts, and raging fires that result.   Those countries on the frontlines -- who have done the least to cause the crisis and have the least resources to deal with it -- must have the support they need to do so.    It is time for a global surge in adaptation investment to save millions of lives from climate [carnage.]   That requires unprecedented coordination around the priorities and plans of vulnerable developing countries.   Developed countries must present a clear and credible roadmap to double adaptation finance by 2025 as a first step towards devoting at least half of all climate finance to adaptation.   Every person on earth must be covered by an early warning system by 2027 – by implementing the Action Plan we launched last year.   And countries should consider a set of global goals to mobilize international action and support on adaptation.   That leads to the third area for accelerated action – finance.   Promises made on international climate finance must be promises kept.   Developed countries must honour their commitments to provide $100 billion a year to developing countries for climate support and fully replenish the Green Climate Fund.   I am concerned that only two G7 countries – Canada and Germany – have made until now replenishment pledges.   Countries must also operationalize the loss and damage fund at COP28 this year. No more delays; no more excuses.   More broadly, many banks, investors and other financial actors continue to reward polluters and incentivize wrecking the planet.   We need a course correction in the global financial system so that it supports accelerated climate action.    That includes putting a price on carbon and pushing the multilateral development banks to overhaul their business models and approaches to risk.   We need the multilateral development banks leveraging their funds to mobilize much more private finance at reasonable cost to developing countries -- and scaling up their funding to renewables, adaptation and loss and damage.   In all these areas, we need governments, civil society, business and others working in partnership to deliver.   I look forward to welcoming first-movers and doers on the Acceleration Agenda to New York for the Climate Ambition Summit in September.    And to hearing how leaders will respond to the facts before us. This is the price of entry.   The evidence is everywhere: humanity has unleashed destruction.   This must not inspire despair, but action.   We can still stop the worst.   But to do so we must turn a year of burning heat into a year of burning ambition.   And accelerate climate action – now.   Enfin, Permettez-moi de dire quelques mots sur la situation profondément préoccupante au Niger. Allow me to say a few words about the deeply worrying situation in Niger.     Soyons clairs : Let me be clear:     Les Nations unies condamnent fermement cette attaque contre le gouvernement démocratiquement élu – et soutiennent les efforts de la CEDEAO et de l'Union africaine pour restaurer la démocratie. The United Nations strongly condemns the assault against the democratically-elected government and supports the efforts of ECOWAS and the African Union to restore democracy.   Hier, j'ai parlé au président Bazoum pour lui exprimer toute notre solidarité. Yesterday I spoke to President Bazoum to express our full solidarity,     Aujourd'hui, je souhaite m'adresser directement à ceux qui le retiennent : Now I want to speak directly to those detaining him:     Libérez Président Bazoum – immédiatement et sans condition. Release President Bazoum immediately and unconditionally.   Cessez d'entraver la gouvernance démocratique de votre pays, et respectez l’État de droit. Stop obstructing the democratic governance of the country and respect the rule of law.   Nous voyons une tendance inquiétante dans la région du Sahel.  Les changements anticonstitutionnels et successifs de gouvernement ont des effets terribles sur le développement et la vie des populations civiles. We are seeing a disturbing trend in the region.  Successive unconstitutional changes of government are having terrible effects on the development and lives of civilian populations.   C’est particulièrement criant dans les pays déjà touchés par les conflits, l'extrémisme violent, le terrorisme et les effets dévastateurs du changement climatique. This is particularly glaring in countries already affected by conflict, violent extremism and terrorism, as well as the devastating effects of climate change.            Les Nations unies sont solidaires du gouvernement démocratiquement élu et du peuple nigérien. The United Nations stands in solidarity with the democratically elected Government and the people of Niger. 

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