UN CLIMATE CHIEF: DON'T GIVE IN TO DESPAIR ON GLOBAL WARMING

Nations must keep up hope and focus on tackling global warming despite the many obstacles now to international cooperation including the war in Ukraine, the coronavirus pandemic, food shortages and rising energy costs, the U.N. climate chief urged.

Patricia Espinosa, whose second term as head of the U.N. climate office ends this year, spoke at the start of a 10-day meeting in Bonn, Germany, where diplomats from around the world will try to lay the foundations for this year's international climate summit in Egypt.

"I appeal to all of you, especially in these difficult and challenging times, not to lose hope, not to lose focus, but to use our united efforts against climate change as the ultimate act of unity between nations," she said.

Since signing the 2015 Paris climate accord, most countries have stepped up their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas that underlie human-made global warming. But collectively those pledges still fall far short of what's needed to limit global warming since pre-industrial times to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) by the end of the century.