1.5 degree climate pledge ‘on life support’, Guterres tells leaders during frank exchanges

(United Nations News) During a private meeting of Heads of State and Government, held on Wednesday at UN Headquarters in New York, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for more action and leadership to tackle the climate crisis, warning that efforts to keep the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels is “on life support”.

Speaking to journalists after the meeting, the UN chief said that he had talked to leaders about the climate emergency, and the “triple global crisis” of food, energy, and finance.

Mr. Guterres told the assembled leaders that the devastation he witnessed this month in Pakistan, where flooding covered around a third of the country at its height, occurred with global warming of 1.2 degrees; the world is currently on track for an overall increase of more than three degrees.

The meeting was billed in advance as a “frank and informal exchange” of views between leaders, co-chaired by Mr. Guterres and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, and an opportunity to address key issues ahead of the COP27 UN Climate Change conference, due to be held in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh in November.

Since last year’s conference in Glasgow, Scotland, climate impacts have worsened, and carbon emissions have risen to record levels, hitting vulnerable communities the hardest.

Four burning issues were addressed during the informal talks: emissions mitigation, climate finance, adaptation, and loss and damage.

On mitigation, Mr. Guterres told the leaders that although emissions must be cut almost in half before 2030, they are on track to rise by 14 per cent. He called on the representatives of the world’s leading economies – the G20 nations – to phase out coal, ramp up investment in renewables, and end their “fossil fuel addiction”.

Read more at: United Nations News