President: Climate change real and time short

Speaking at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová called on the assembly to battle climate change. Čaputová criticised the "serious difficulties" that have gotten in the way of agreeing on new rules, explaining that this mostly concerns climate change, new technologies, cyberspace and artificial intelligence. She criticised populism and putting national interests before "the global good", adding that "the best way to be patriotic lies not in national egoism but in co-operation." She noted that she sees climate change as the key issue, and that climate change denial worries her a great deal. "Climate change is a fact," she said, "and we're running out of time." Nevertheless she claimed that if we act now we can still reduce carbon emissions within 12 years and keep global warming at reasonable levels. "If we can succeed at the local level," she asked, "if we have successful green companies, why can't we do the same thing at the global level?" She added that private companies are becoming aware that investments in the green economy can be both "profitable and economically rational."