UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres has called on businesses, cities, states and regions to double their efforts in order to cut down harmful greenhouse gas emissions.
Guterres made the call when he unveiled a new initiative intended to develop stronger standards for “net-zero” pledges by partners below the national government level, in the fight against climate change.
The UN boss who also oversaw the launching of a new group of experts to help with realizing a net-zero future said that despite growing pledges of climate action, global emissions are at an all-time high.
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“And they continue to rise,” he said, adding that “the latest science shows that climate disruption is causing havoc in every region already.
He explained that the key objective is to stop global temperatures from rising 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels – as the international community agreed in Paris in 2015.
The UN chief maintained that while businesses, investors, cities, states and regions have a duty to walk the talk on their net-zero promises, governments had the biggest responsibility to achieve net-zero emissions by mid-century –“especially the G20” industrialized nations
He warned that the world was losing the race to reduce global temperature rise, adding that the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) had demonstrated that nearly half of humanity is already in the danger zone.
“If we don’t see significant and sustained emissions reductions this decade, the window of opportunity to keep 1.5 alive will be closed – and closed forever,”. “And that will be a disaster for everyone.”
He however praised the commitment being made to create a new brain’s trust to make the commitments on net zero, a reality, in the form of the new advisory High-Level Expert Group.
Story was adapted from UN News.
