The world must stop a “war against nature” and find more political will to combat climate change, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said on the eve of a two-week global climate summit in the Spanish capital, Madrid.
The devastating impacts of global warming that threaten humanity are a pushback from Nature under assault, Mr Guterres warned ahead of the key climate conference according to the French newsagency AFP.
“For many decades the human species has been at war with the planet, and now the planet is fighting back,” he said, decrying “utterly inadequate” efforts of the world’s major economies to curb carbon pollution.
Around the world, extreme weather ranging from wildfires to floods is being linked to human made global warming, putting pressure on the summit to strengthen the implementation of the 2015 UN sponsored Paris Agreement on limiting the rise in temperature.
“Our war against nature must stop, and we know that it is possible,” Mr Guterres said ahead of the December 2 to 13 summit according to Reuters Newsagency
“We simply have to stop digging and drilling and take advantage of the vast possibilities offered by renewable energy and nature-based solutions.”
Cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases, mostly from burning carbon-based fossil fuels, that have been agreed so far under the Paris Agreement are not enough to limit temperature rises to a goal of between 1.5 and two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
AFP reports 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.
Many countries were not even meeting those commitments, and political will was lacking, Mr Guterres said.
United States President Donald Trump for his part has started withdrawing the US from the Paris Agreement, while the deforestation of the Amazon basin, a crucial carbon reservoir, is accelerating and China has tilted back towards building more coal-fired power plants.
Seventy countries have committed to a goal of ‘carbon neutrality’ or ‘climate neutrality’ by 2050.
This means they would balance out greenhouse emissions, for instance through carbon capture technology or by planting trees.
However, Mr Guterres said these pledges were not enough.
“We also see clearly that the world’s largest emitters are not pulling their weight,” he said, “and without them, our goal is unreachable.”
Last year’s UN climate summit in Poland yielded a framework for reporting and monitoring emissions pledges and updating plans for further cuts.
However, sticking points remain, not least over an article on how to put a price on emissions, and so allow them to be traded.
“I don’t even want to entertain the possibility that we do not agree on article 6,” Mr Guterres said.
“We are here to approve guidelines to implement article 6, not to find excuses not to do it.”
AFP report to help speed the transition of the financial sector, which continues to invest heavily in the fossil fuels driving global warming, Mr Guterres announced the appointment of current Bank of England governor Mark Carney as special envoy on climate action and finance, effective January 1.
“The announcement of Mr Carney’s new role is a powerful signal that we need greater ambition on all fronts, not only from governments,” said Spain’s Minister for Ecological Transition Teresa Ribera.
“The global shift from the grey to the green economy is gathering momentum,” she said in a statement.
“But much more is needed.”
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