MADRID: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the world’s efforts to stop climate change have been “utterly inadequate” so far and there is a danger global warming could pass the “point of no return.”
Speaking before the start Monday of a two-week international climate conference in Madrid, the U.N. chief said the impact of rising temperatures — including more extreme weather — is already being felt around the world.
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“We are confronted with a global climate crisis and the point of no return is no longer over the horizon, it is in sight and hurtling towards us.”
Guterres flagged a UN report to be released on Tuesday confirming the last five years are the warmest on record, with 2019 likely to be the second hottest ever.
“Climate-related disasters are becoming more frequent, more deadly, more destructive,” he said on the eve of the 196-nation COP25 climate change talks in Madrid.
He further said that human health and food security are at risk, he added, noting that air pollution associated with climate change accounts for seven million premature deaths every year.
The Paris Agreement calls for capping global warming at under two degrees Celsius, but recent science has made clear that the treaty’s aspiration goal of 1.5C is a far safer threshold.
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Guterres insisted that the 1.5C goal is doable. All that is missing, he said, is political will.
The UN chief’s comments were clearly aimed at the handful of countries responsible for more than half of global greenhouse gas emissions, though he did not call them out by name.
US President Donald Trump has set in motion the process that will see the United States withdraw from the Paris deal by year’s end.
Guterres did single out the European Union as playing a constructive role. “Europe has an absolutely essential role to play, and must be a cornerstone in the global negotiations leading to carbon neutrality,” he said.
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