Inauguration of the "Climate Transition Lecture Series" by Ms Patricia ESPINOSA, UNFCCC Executive Secretary

Climate change has become a pressingly urgent problem, as extreme weather conditions are more frequent and alarming headlines appeal to collective imagination. There have been actions taken to tackle climate change as well as emission reduction plans that aim to reduce the increase of global temperature to the necessary limits recognized by science worldwide.

A legal framework has been set up to govern responses to climate change under the 2015 Paris Agreement, pursuing an objective of climate neutrality, and the 2018 Katowice Rulebook, promoting trust among countries so to make them all contribute towards global efforts. To this aim, a range of national initiatives have emerged, including the EU’s aspiration to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050.

At the heart of these initiatives lays the need for a systemic change towards a sustainable, carbon-neutral and just development, which is better for both people and the planet. This requires additional social mobilization to secure political acceptance for an unprecedented climate transformation, which will affect how we heat our homes, how we travel, what products we buy, and even what we eat and drink.

Against this backdrop, the College of Europe in Natolin inaugurated a "Climate Transition Lecture Series" in which framework we will be inviting guests who have devoted their lives to seeking solutions to climate change challenges.

The inaugural lecture of the series was given by Ms Patricia ESPINOSA, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), on Thursday 5 March 2020 at the College of Europe in Natolin, Warsaw. The speech of Ms ESPINOSA is available on the UNFCCC website. For more information about Ms Patricia ESPINOSA, please visit her biography on the UNFCCC website.

The lecture and the following question and answer session were moderated by Ambassador Artur LORKOWSKI, Special Envoy for COP24, which was held in Poland in December 2018.

Watch the video recording from the event below:

See the picture gallery: