On Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres claimed the world is “sleepwalking to climate catastrophe,” with major economies permitting carbon pollution to rise while substantial reductions are required.
He told a sustainability conference in London that the objective of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (34.7 degrees Fahrenheit) is now “on life support.”
According to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), maintaining this target needs a 45% reduction in emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by mid-century.
However, if countries stick to their recently updated Paris Agreement goals, emissions are expected to climb by 14% by the end of the decade.
Guterres warned in a pre-recorded video address that “The problem is getting worse. “We’re dozing off on the verge of a climate disaster.”
“If we continue with more of the same, we can kiss 1.5°C goodbye,” he continued. “Even two degrees may be out of reach.”
Antonio Guterres’s remarks came just hours before the 195-nation IPCC began a two-week conference to validate a groundbreaking report on strategies for decreasing carbon emissions and capturing CO2 from the atmosphere.
If the Paris temperature objectives are to be fulfilled, the research is anticipated to find that CO2 emissions must peak within the next few years.
COVID recovery funding, according to Guterres, is “scandalously uneven” and represents a squandered chance to speed up the transition to clean energy.
He went on to say that the Russian invasion of Ukraine might further stymie climate action, as importers seek to substitute Russian oil and gas.
