It might sound like another chilling warning, but the UN Secretary-General brought the reality of climate challenge into sharp focus when he had this to say:
“With the planet warming by as much as 1.2 degrees, and where climate disasters have forced 30 million to flee their homes. We are sleepwalking to climate catastrophe.”
Antonio Guterres warned that the time is running out to meet the international goal of keeping climate change below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
He was addressing the Economist Sustainability Summit via a video link.
The goal to keep climate change below 1.5 degrees Celsius is “on life support” and “in intensive care” due to a combination of issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and a general lack of political will.
“The world returned from [the COP26 climate summit] with a certain naive optimism” about achieving the goal, Guterres told attendees at the Economist Sustainability Summit. “Keeping 1.5 alive requires a 45 percent reduction in global emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by mid-century. That problem was not solved in Glasgow.”
“According to present national commitments, global emissions are set to increase by almost 14 percent in the 2020s,” he added. “Last year alone, global energy-related CO2 emissions grew by 6 percent to their highest levels in history. Coal emissions have surged to record highs. We are sleepwalking to climate catastrophe.”
Guterres added that the energy crisis created by Russia’s military offensive against Ukraine and subsequent sanctions against Russian energy illustrated the risks of the status quo.
“As current events make all too clear, our continued reliance on fossil fuels puts the global economy and energy security at the mercy of geopolitical shocks and crises,” Guterres said.
However, Guterres remarked that there remained hope to “move the 1.5-degree goal from life support to the recovery room” if certain steps are taken, such as increased use of renewables and decarbonization of major industrial sectors.
The UN chief’s remarks follow a dire assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that warned of the “brief and rapidly closing window” leaders have to prevent catastrophic global warming.
According to current national commitments, however, global emissions are set to increase by almost 14 percent during the rest of the decade.
Last year alone, global energy-related CO2 emissions grew by six percent “to their highest levels in history,” Mr. Guterres said, as coal emissions surged “to record highs.”
“In our globally connected world, no country and no corporation can insulate itself from these levels of chaos.”
If we do not want to “kiss 1.5 goodbyes…we need to go to the source – the G20” (group of leading industrialized nations), the UN chief said.
He noted that the developed and emerging G20 economies accounted for 80 percent of all global emissions. The world, he noted, had a high dependence on coal but underscored that “our planet can’t afford a climate blame game.”
Developed countries must not put the onus on emerging economies to accelerate their transition nor must emerging economies respond by saying, “you exported carbon-intensive heavy industrial activities to us in return for cheaper goods”.
“We can’t point fingers while the planet burns,” the UN chief said.
[…] ‘We are sleepwalking to climate catastrophe’ […]