Guterres: Time is running out to avoid the "disaster" of global warming

Guterres: Time is running out to avoid the "disaster" of global warming

 United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stressed on Thursday that humanity is “paying a heavy price” for its inaction in the face of global warming, warning that time is running out to correct the situation and avoid a “disaster.”

Launching the UNEP report on the difference between greenhouse gas emissions and countries’ obligations, Guterres said: “There is a direct link between increasing emissions and climate disasters that are increasingly frequent and severe. Everywhere in the world, people are paying a heavy price.”

The new report issued by the United Nations Environment Programme, published less than a month before COP 29 in Azerbaijan, indicated that policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions currently implemented by countries could cause a “catastrophic” temperature rise of 3.1 degrees. Celsius over a century compared to the pre-industrial era.

Despite promises to do better, and even those that developing countries have linked to financial or technical assistance, global temperatures will rise by 2.6 degrees Celsius, with a set of irreversible consequences: melting ice sheets and rising sea levels uncontrollably. And the exacerbation of extreme weather phenomena.

The report considered that “the scale of the challenge is indisputable,” but staying below 1.5 degrees Celsius “is still technically possible.” In 2023, the world recorded record emissions of 57.1 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide, but the increase has slowed to +1.3 percent and global emissions are expected to peak in 2024 or 2025.