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We hear you Greta Thunberg: Kalla blames climate change for worsening forest fires
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Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks with other child petitioners from 12 countries around the world who presented a landmark complaint to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child to protest the lack of government action on the climate crisis during a press conference in New York on Sept. 23. (REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton)
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ice President Jusuf Kalla has blamed climate change as a contributor to the worsening forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan, which have caused deteriorating air quality not only in Indonesia but also in neighboring countries.
Speaking at the Climate Action Summit at the United Nations in New York on Monday, Kalla said the world was in a climate emergency and that the extreme weather caused by climate change had rendered disaster-prone countries even more vulnerable.
“Indonesia is a case in point,” Kalla told the UN forum in New York, according to a UN recording of the event. “Land and forest fires that have broken out in parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan are worsened by the impact of climate change.”
The choking haze and worsening air quality in Indonesia were a result of the illegal clearing of agricultural land by fire in Sumatra and Kalimantan, with the National Police having named 249 people and six companies suspects for the forest fires.
The average global temperature between 2015 and 2019 is on track to be the hottest of any five-year period on record, according to a report compiled by the World Meteorological Organization and published ahead of the UN climate summit, AFP reported. The period "is currently estimated to be 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial (1850-1900) times and 0.2 degrees Celsius warmer than 2011-2015," the report said. The past four years were already the hottest since record-keeping began in 1850.
On Monday, teenage activist Greta Thunberg angrily denounced world leaders for failing to tackle climate change.
“How dare you pretend that this can be solved with just 'business as usual' and some technical solutions?” she said in one panel at the UN, as recorded in a video that went viral on Monday.
