Creative solutions are needed to tackle climate change

New York - Momentum on tackling climate change and building a better future is building globally.

Effective and sustainable action on climate change requires innovative, and sometimes creative, solutions and key to that is dialogue between all stakeholders.

A litmus test of climate progress is the Amazon rain forest, which are the lungs of the world. It's an incredible ecosystem with an amazing amount of biodiversity, cultures, languages, people, and it's an essential part of the mitigation in combating climate change.

But the Amazon is coming to a point of no return, which means that if nothing is done, the Amazon will soon become a desert. That means that the lungs of the world will soon become dry, and they will have unimaginable implications for the rest of the world.

It is still possible the world’s biggest rainforest could turn into desert and dry up. The world has never faced anything like that to be able to compare it to another crisis.

The Amazon plays a huge role for the entire world's well-being, for this planet's future. And it's everyone's responsibility to make sure that this ecosystem is protected.

Biodiversity is the foundation of life. It is the food people eat. It is the water they drink, the air they breathe. Without biodiversity, there is no life.

Provision of carbon sequestration is needed for climate change, for water circulation, and the benefits go on. And clearly then without biodiversity, there is no life.

The world is dependent on biodiversity, but that has been at the cost of that biodiversity in terms of degrading it.

So we need to learn from that, but we can only learn by also protecting the rights of the Indigenous peoples in local communities, protecting the land of Indigenous communities.

Scientists have this question that they ask, which is, why do birds and bees and fish and human beings, why do they flock together? You've seen those giant schools of slowly swimming fish.

It's very important that we help the local heroes and the people who are actually supporting those people. Because when you come in to try to solve a problem for people that you haven't experienced, you come with solutions that are not going to work.

The most important thing for anyone that they can do… we know that your success is your responsibility. You have to work hard if you are in school, you have to study so that you can do better. All of it is up to you.

You have to inspire them so that they can rise up themselves; that's what creates sustainable growth. That's what will make sure that we have a just and equitable world that works for everybody, not just for the elite – by making sure that we will democratise education and access to opportunity.

It's not going to be some overnight like we snap our fingers and the food system is saved. There’s a lot of commitment and hard work ahead.