MEDIA INVITATION: Commonwealth Secretary-General available for interviews on climate change

Media Invitation: Commonwealth Secretary-General available for interviews on climate change Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland will be leading a delegation to the UN Climate Change Conference, COP25 to be held in Madrid, Spain next week. Key to this crucial global event will be raising ambitions for climate action, while ensuring concrete responses.  COP25 will also have enhanced focus on oceans, land degradation and desertification, in light of special reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The Secretary-General will be available* for interviews on key climate issues, including: •    The urgent need for higher climate ambition to limit global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius – or risk severe and irreversible impacts; •    The acute challenges faced by small and vulnerable states, including vulnerability to natural disasters, unsustainable debt, and difficulty in tapping into climate finance; •    The fundamental link between the ocean and climate change and the critical gap between climate ambition and ocean action;  •    Milestones achieved by the Commonwealth Climate Change Programme, especially the Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub (CCFAH), and the growing momentum of the Commonwealth Blue Charter; •    Innovations and home-grown approaches from around the Commonwealth to tackling climate change.  *Subject to scheduling. Face-to-face interviews may be conducted in London until 6 December and thereafter in Madrid.