Leaders must recognize world in middle of climate emergency – UN Secretary General

Oct 01, 2021 News

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With COP26 one month away…

By Kiana Wilburg

Kaieteur News – With the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of Parties commonly referred to as COP26, one month away, UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, recently urged leaders to recognise that the world is in the middle of a climate emergency, as such, urgent action is needed to protect humanity.

The official made this plea at the final official ministerial meeting pre COP26 that was held in Milan, Italy, yesterday.
While it is essential for leaders to fulfil the promise of the Paris Agreement to lower global temperate to 1.5 Degree Celsius, Guterres said this will require more than just the spoken word.
“It means providing US$100 billion dollars each year to the developing world for climate action. And it means balancing financial support for mitigation and adaptation,” said the Secretary General.
On mitigation, Guterres said current Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) will lead to a catastrophic 2.7 Degrees Celsius global temperature rise while adding; “We need more ambition, now.”
Guterres said he commends those nations, especially vulnerable developing countries that have come forward with more ambitious NDCs, despite the on-going COVID-19 crisis.
He stressed however, “We can only meet the 1.5-degree goal if all G20 countries (which includes, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States), which are responsible for 80 percent of global emissions, pledge more decisive action in new or updated NDCs.”
Even as he stressed the need for developed economies to take the lead, Guterres said all nations have a crucial role to play in the current climate crisis hence, he asked that emerging economies take the extra step and deliver more emissions cuts.
The Secretary General said, “We are all in the same boat, and we have to pull together. That is why I am asking all nations to enhance NDCs and domestic policies as often as necessary and without delay until we are collectively on the right track. I cannot emphasise enough that time is running out. Irreversible climate tipping points lie alarmingly close.”

PHASING OUT COAL USE

According to the Secretary General, the single most effective step leaders can take to limit temperature rise is phasing out coal, beginning with no new coal power plants.

In this regard he said the world has come a long way in the past year. He stressed however that much is still left to be done to phase out domestic coal by 2030 in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an intergovernmental economic organisation with 38 member countries, and by 2040 in the rest of the world.

“I welcome the most recent announcement by China on ending international financing of coal power. I now ask private finance, from commercial banks to asset managers, including many in the United States, Europe and Asia-Pacific, to quickly follow suit and stop financing coal,” expressed the UN Official.

He added, “I ask that coalitions of governments and public and private finance institutions unite to scale up existing financial mechanisms to retire coal and fund a just transition toward universal access to renewable energy.”

PROMISE OF US$100B

Guterres was keen to note that developed countries have a responsibility to increase their individual pledges and honour their collective commitment to deliver the promised $100 billion dollars a year. He said this is an essential question of trust while adding the US$100 billion dollars is, of course, merely a down payment on what is needed to finance mitigation and adaptation in developing countries.

Guterres emphasised that this has to be fulfilled, as “pledges need to be backed by action and concrete deliverables.”

He also stressed that this funding is needed to assist with the third matter he referenced in his opening remarks—adaptation. The UN official reminded that the Paris Agreement says, “The provision of scaled-up financial resources should aim to achieve a balance between adaptation and mitigation.”

“Six years on, we are nowhere close,” Guterres outlined.

The Secretary General noted that adaptation remains the neglected half of the climate equation, accounting for only 25 percent of climate finance in support of developing countries. Even worse, the official said adaptation represents only 0.1 percent of private funding.

With this in mind, the official repeated his call for donors and multilateral development banks to allocate at least 50 percent of their climate support towards adaptation and resilience.

He underscored that the failure to deliver means massive loss of lives and livelihoods.

In conclusion, the UN Secretary General said, “…Dear friends, time is tight and the storm clouds continue to gather. Failure remains a possibility, but one that we cannot, must not, accept…Let us rebuild the trust that is needed to make COP26 a success for everyone. We have immense power. We can either save our world or condemn humanity to a hellish future.”

 

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