Daily Times

The United Nations has cancelled some meetings in Bonn, Germany, and elsewhere planned in the run-up to a crucial U.N. climate summit to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, in November due to the coronavirus outbreak, an official said on Friday. “This exceptional measure aims to contain the spread of COVID-19 and safeguard the health and safety of participants attending UNFCCC meetings in Bonn and elsewhere,” Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said in a statement. The UNFCCC secretariat will not hold any physical meetings in Bonn or elsewhere between March 6 and the end of April, she said in a statement. The Glasgow summit in November is expected to be the most important round of climate negotiations since the 2015 agreement was reached. Speaking at the United Nations in New York, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said countries should not allow the virus to distract them from the urgent task of making more ambitious climate commitments under the Paris process.