To protect humanity from the catastrophic, irreversible harm that nuclear weapons are designed to inflict, governments must work with urgency to eliminate them.

Tens of thousands of nuclear weapons have already been dismantled in response to calls from people everywhere for abolition. One country, South Africa, has eliminated its nuclear weapons completely; dozens of others have abandoned plans to acquire them.

At the height of the Cold War, there were around 70,000 nuclear weapons, with major reductions in the global stockpile achieved from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s.

More recently, however, programmes for warhead dismantlement have ground to a halt, and some nuclear-armed nations are now expanding their arsenals at unprecedented rates. Not one of them has outlined a plan for total disarmament.

But the vast majority of the world’s nations remain strongly opposed to nuclear weapons and want them abolished without delay.

It is not enough just to stop the spread of these weapons to more nations, or to place limits on the circumstances in which they might be used. Given the gravity of the threat they pose to all life on our planet, abolition is the only answer.