Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa conveyed this message in a video posted on the Presidency of the Republic's web portal about the "Leaders for Nature and Peoples Event" held during the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

"The current pandemic shows, above all, that we live in one world, a world in which everything is connected, a world in which what happens on the other side of the planet always ends up affecting us, often with dramatic effects, as it has happened now", declares the Head of State.

Pointing out that "a virus that appeared in Asia reaches the West in a few days, and from there to Africa, America, North and South, everywhere on the planet", Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa adds: "Perhaps, finally, the Covid-19 pandemic will serve as a lesson for us".

"Perhaps with it we will learn that the destruction of a tree in one continent, that a forest fire in another, that the gases produced by the consumption of fossil fuels have effects for all of us, for the whole of humanity. Maybe with it we will gain awareness of what a global catastrophe is", he considers.

The President of the Republic asks "if this is the same case with a virus, as with global warming, the rise of the oceans, galloping desertification", and argues that "it is time to act, with determination and hope".

"It does not matter what some gentlemen think, important or not important, significant or not significant, who deny the evidence, who deny what needs to be done together, who defend selfish, egocentric positions, denial of reality, denial of the importance of the climate, denial of the importance of nature, denial of the importance of acting together for this planet, which is ours, and is one. We must act", he reinforces.

A group of 16 young Portuguese environmentalists asked the President of the Republic to join the more than 45 heads of state and government who have already supported the commitment presented at the "Leaders for Nature and Peoples Event" at the United Nations.

In the three-and-a-half minute video released about this event, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa warns about the consequences of the loss of biodiversity and repeats the motto that "there is no planet B or C or D".

"It's time to finally realise, and with urgency, that we live in one world, ours, this blue planet", he insists.