On the initiative of the Netherlands, a new international climate committee will start next month. This “Global Commission on Adaptation” will be dedicated to convince countries worldwide to face and adapt to the consequences of climate change. The Minister of Infrastructure and Water Authority, Cora van Nieuwenhuizen, announced that former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, Bill Gates, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva will lead this committee on her invitation. By setting up the Commission, “we want the need to adapt and answer to climate change to be felt globally” said the Minister. “I am honored that Georgieva, Ban Ki-Moon and Gates have accepted the offer to draw this important committee. "
The former UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, added: “This announcement from the Dutch government today is a crucial step forward in getting more attention for climate change and more movement in climate adaptation. I congratulate Minister van Nieuwenhuizen for her role as initiator of the Global Commission on Adaptation. I look forward to working with her and other world leaders to start our global mission and to encourage climate adaptation. '
Ban Ki-Moon, Gates and Georgieva will come to the Netherlands on 16 October to start this new committee during a special conference. Van Nieuwenhuizen is the initiator of the committee and will represent the Netherlands as one of around 20 committee members. In October, the names of other members will also be known which will work as international advocates.
The aim of the commission:
“Climate change is not something of the distant future, we are in the middle of it,” says the minister at the start of the press conference. ”We see the effects of climate change almost daily. Take the long-term drought that affects large parts of Europe at the moment.”
The consequences of climate change are becoming increasingly visible. Large areas are threatened by flooding and at the same time, many regions suffer from a water shortage due to drought. Long-term periods of heat will in future become more of a problem for example for the infrastructure or energy supply. The Global Commission on Adaptation is working on the tasks arising from the Paris climate agreement. In September 2019, the Commission will submit the United Nations an action program on what countries need to do to protect sensitive areas from the changing climate in the short run.