UN Secretary-General António Guterres says rich countries must sign ‘historic accord’ on climate with poorer countries as climate negotiations take place as deepening divide between developed and developing countries , warned that otherwise “we will perish.” brink.
The stark warning comes as world leaders begin to gather for Sunday’s UN Cop27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, but even the organizers are facing the hardest in at least a decade. I admit that it will be a thing.
Cop27 is being held amidst the worst geopolitical tensions in years over the Ukraine war, worsening global cost of living crisis and deepening economic pessimism.
But this chasm must be bridged if humanity is to have any hope of averting the worst of climate collapse, Guterres said.
“If the two do not match, there is no way to avoid catastrophic situations. [the developed and developing world] We cannot establish a historic pact,” he told The Guardian in an interview the night before the summit.
Developed countries have failed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently to provide poor countries with the funds they need to cope with the resulting extreme weather. Guterres said the stark climate inequality between the rich world, who account for the majority of emissions, and the poor, who bear the brunt of its impact, is the biggest issue at the current talks. .
“Current Policy [on the climate] It will be absolutely devastating,” he said. “And the truth is that without agreements between developed and emerging economies, this situation cannot be changed.”
Mr. Guterres has drawn criticism in some regions for his increasingly harsh rhetoric on the climate crisis, the coming of “mass suicide”, “murder” and “Code Red” warnings to humanity.
But he argued that he refuses to dampen apocalyptic language as the climate emergency is rapidly accelerating.
“For the simple reason that we are nearing a tipping point, the tipping point [climate breakdown] It is irreversible,” he said. “That damage will not heal us, it will not allow us to curb rising temperatures. We need to rebuild trust.”
Tipping points are thresholds within the climate system that, when stumbled, lead to cascading effects. They include points at which permafrost melts releasing methane, powerful greenhouse gases drive further heating, and the dry Amazon rainforest switches from sink to carbon source.
“We are approaching tipping points that will create irreversible effects, some of which are difficult to even imagine,” he warned.
He also called for the United States and China to rebuild their divided relationship, which Mr Guterres said was “important” to combating climate change. It will have to be reestablished because it will never be possible to reverse it,” he said.
Guterres, along with the Egyptian government, will convene world leaders at the start of the Cop27 summit to try to salvage a series of disappointing climate negotiations. This year has seen geopolitical ties torn apart by the war in Ukraine, soaring fossil fuel and food prices that have sparked cost of living crises around the world, and a failure to follow up by governments, including the UK. rice field. A promise made at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow last year.
The deal Guterres has in mind would require big powers to do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide financial lifelines to poor countries. This was necessary to restore “trust,” he said.
A lack of trust in climate negotiations means a lack of funding. Wealthy countries were to provide at least $100 billion annually by 2020 to help poor countries reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the effects of the climate crisis.
However, this goal has been repeatedly missed and is not expected to be met this year. Poor countries are already experiencing climate disasters such as record floods in Pakistan and record droughts in Africa.
A “historic pact” between rich and poor would include clear new financial pledges and commitments for rich countries and emerging economies to step up their emission reduction targets, he said. Guterres said.
Progress is also needed on the thorny issue of ‘loss and damage’, which is likely to be a flashpoint at Cop27. Loss and damage refers to the most devastating impacts of extreme weather, which are impossible to adapt to and enable poor countries to rescue and rebuild those whose physical and social infrastructure has been destroyed by climate-related destruction. We want a funding mechanism that disaster.
“The issue of loss and damage has been postponed, postponed, postponed,” Guterres said. “We need to take responsibility and ensure that there is effective assistance to countries suffering the most dramatic levels of loss and damage.”
Wealthy countries have raised $16 trillion to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, he noted. But for poorer countries, repayments are higher, even without debt relief to address the combined effects of COVID-19, rising costs of living, climate change and a strong dollar.
“I’m frustrated [in the developing world] It’s true and deserves a response,” he said. He has demanded a windfall tax on the huge profits enjoyed by oil and gas companies in recent months and will repeat the same demands in Sharm el-Sheikh.
At last year’s summit in Glasgow, countries agreed to focus on limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, but a recent United Nations report found that current policies Temperatures have been shown to rise by about 2.5 degrees.
Mr. Guterres said there was only a slim chance that the target could be maintained. “We still have a chance, but we are rapidly losing it. 1.5C is in intensive care, I think the machines are shaking. Either act in or be lost, perhaps lost forever.”
