UN Secretary-General Guterres warns of the potential failure of the World Climate Conference: A drastic change of course is needed to mitigate the climate catastrophe. However, he also sees glimmers of hope in the fight against CO2 emissions.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres, ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30), has called for greater commitment to combating climate change in stark terms. Ten years after the Paris Climate Agreement, hailed as historic, the international community has failed to keep global warming below the crucial 1.5-degree limit compared to pre-industrial levels.
"The bitter truth is that we have failed to stay below 1.5 degrees," he said at a meeting of heads of state and government in Belém, Brazil, ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference beginning next week. Guterres cited scientific findings that the 1.5-degree limit will be temporarily exceeded by the beginning of the 2030s at the latest – with disastrous consequences. Every tenth of a degree means more hunger, more displacement, and more loss, the UN Secretary-General emphasized.
The host of the World Climate Conference – Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – also called for adherence to the goals of the Paris Agreement. Otherwise, drastic human and material losses would be imminent:"COP30 will be the COP of truth," said Lula. He noted that it was the first time a climate summit was being held in the Amazon – and that there was"no greater symbol for the environmental cause than the Amazon rainforest" with its countless species and plants. He called on the international community to show more"courage and determination" in the fight against global warming. A radical change of course is needed.
UN Secretary-General Guterres also called on top politicians to radically change course: no new coal-fired power plants or new oil and gas projects should be approved. Fossil fuels are the main source of climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions.
Guterres also called for a complete halt to global deforestation by 2030, as agreed years ago. However, he said the current fight against the climate crisis is insufficient:"This is a moral failure and deadly negligence."
The reason for this dire warning is that on a rapidly heating planet, natural disasters such as droughts, storms, floods, and wildfires become more severe and frequent. According to the United Nations, current global climate policies are putting our planet on track for a 2.8-degree Celsius warming by the end of the century.
"Red line for humanity"
Guterres also offered hope, saying that global warming could fall below 1.5 degrees Celsius if all countries act quickly and decisively now. A revolution towards clean energy has begun."Solar and wind energy are currently the cheapest energy sources."
He emphasized that the 1.5-degree limit is"a red line for humanity," which remains crucial for a livable planet."It must remain within reach." Nevertheless, Guterres criticized the fact that enormous government subsidies, i.e., taxpayers' money, are flowing into the oil, gas, and coal industries."Billions are being spent on lobbying, the public is being deceived, and progress is being blocked."
50,000 participants expected
The two-day climate summit of heads of state and government began today, ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference COP30, which starts on Monday in Belém. Around 50,000 participants are expected at the two-week negotiations.
In addition to negotiations on the further implementation and financing of the decisions made in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, the talks in Belém will also focus on concrete projects. Germany intends, among other things, to support the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) proposed by Brazil, which aims to finance the protection of threatened forests in various regions of the world. According to the German government, the amount of support is currently being finalized.
