UN issues dire warning at crucial Climate Summit
Katowice, December 3 (IANS): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday said the world was in deep trouble and not doing enough or moving fast enough to prevent irreversible and catastrophic climate disruption.
"Climate change is running faster than we are, and we must catch up sooner rather than later before it is too late," he said in his remarks at the official opening of the two-week long UN climate negotiations, known as COP24, that saw governments and delegates from nearly 200 countries in this Polish city.
"We are in trouble. We are in deep trouble with the climate change. For many, people, regions, and even countries, this is already a matter of life and death.
"This meeting is the most important gathering on climate change since the Paris Agreement was signed (in 2015)," he said.
He was categorically clear in saying "Our job here in Katowice is to finalise the Paris Agreement Work Programme -- the rule book for implementation. I remind all parties that this is a deadline you set for yourselves."
The rule book will govern national pledges to keep the rise in global temperature to under 1.5 degrees Celsius, and ensuring adequate finances to developing nations.
Climate experts told IANS that the priority outcome at the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24) will be the finalisation of the 'Paris rule book', a Bible for transparent implementation of the 2015 Paris Agreement -- the first global treaty to reduce emissions by all rich and poor nations.
The COP24 negotiations with the participation of more than 20,000 people from nearly 200 countries are going to be held in the backdrop of grim news on climate change from three UN environment bodies.
This meeting is the most important gathering on climate change since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015.
"It is hard to overstate the urgency of our situation. Even as we witness devastating climate impacts causing havoc across the world, we are still not doing enough, nor moving fast enough, to prevent irreversible and catastrophic climate disruption," Guterres said.
"Nor are we doing enough to capitalize on the enormous social, economic and environmental opportunities of climate action,” he lamented.
According to the World Meteorological Organization, the 20 warmest years on record have been in the past 22 years, with the top four in the past four years.
The concentration of carbon dioxide is the highest it has been in three million years.
Emissions are now growing again.
The recent special report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) finds that warming could reach 1.5 degrees as soon as 2030, with devastating impacts.
He said emissions must decline by 45 per cent from 2010 levels by 2030 and be net zero by 2050.
Renewable energy will need to supply half to two-thirds of the world's primary energy by 2050 with a corresponding reduction in fossil fuels.
