http://english.cctv.com/2016/08/30/VIDEaUfrm1QKggc218u5glXb160830.shtml

 

Climate change has come to be in the spotlight at the upcoming G20 summit.

 

The earth is getting warmer. In January, the World Meteorological Organization said that 2015 was the hottest year ever recorded.

Now, the organization warns that 2016 is on track to continue breaking temperature records.

This means we will face more heat waves, extreme rainfall and other effects of global warming.

"In the long term, if you ruin the planet, everyone is going to suffer. As the world becomes warmer, therefore the weather becomes more extreme, there are going to even be serious economic effects," said John Ross, Fmr. Dir.-Gen.,Economic & Commercial Policy Dept. in London.

"We can see that climate change has affected China greatly, such as this year's floods. The economic losses can reach tens of billions of dollars," said Yang Fuqiang, Senior Advisor, Natural Resources Defense Council.

According to the United Nations, climate change may cost global economies more than 2 trillion dollars by 2030.

The Paris climate agreement was just born to tackle the issue.

"195 countries that were in Paris made some major efforts in terms of addressing the problem of climate change. Now we hope that the G20 summit will be used to convince those major economies to ratify as soon as possible the Paris agreement," said Guy Saint-Jacques, Canadian Ambassador to China.

Actually, it's not the first time that the topic of climate change has been discussed at a G20 summit.

In 2009, the G20 members reaffirmed in London, their commitment to address the threat of irreversible climate change, and to reach an agreement on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions at the UN Climate Change conference in Copenhagen.

And at the Brisbane summit in 2014, China said it would establish a South-South Cooperation Fund to help developing countries fight climate change.