As the date set aside for the commencement of this year’s climate change summit in Egypt draws near, United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres has said that countries must make climate change a top priority.
The top UN Official underscored the importance of COP27 while also warning that the collective commitments of G20 leading industrialized nations’ governments are coming “far too little, and far too late”.
“A third of Pakistan flooded. Europe’s hottest summer in 500 years. The Philippines hammered. The whole of Cuba in a black-out. And here, in the United States, Hurricane Ian has delivered a brutal reminder that no country and no economy is immune from the climate crisis,” the UN boss highlighted while speaking to journalists in New York.
“And while “climate chaos gallops ahead, climate action has stalled,” he added.
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Guterres’s comments come as government representatives meet in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Capital, Kinshasa for pre-cop planning to finalize the agenda for the COP27 climate change conference in Egypt next month.
The UN said that the actions of the wealthiest developed and emerging economies simply don’t add up, pointing out that current pledges and policies are “shutting the door” on limiting global temperature to 2°C, let alone meeting the 1.5°C goals.
He warned, “we are in a life-or-death struggle for our own safety today and our survival tomorrow,” saying there is no time for pointing fingers or “twiddling thumbs” but instead requires “a quantum level compromise between developed and emerging economies”.
He maintained that while pursuing their own “drop-in-the-bucket initiatives” international financial institutions must overhaul their business approaches to combat climate change.
He noted that progress must be made to address loss and damage beyond countries’ abilities to adapt as well as financial support for climate action, adding that decisions must also be made now on the question of loss and damage as “failure to act” will lead to “more loss of trust and more climate damage,” he said, describing it as “a moral imperative that cannot be ignored”.
“COP27 is “the number one litmus test” of how seriously governments take the growing climate toll on the most vulnerable countries,” he said. “The world can’t wait,” he spelt out. “Emissions are at an all-time high and rising”.
Guterres further stated that adaptation and resilience funding must represent half of all climate finance; multilateral development banks “must raise their game”, and emerging economies need support to back renewable energy and build resilience.
According to him, while the Resilience and Sustainability Trust led by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a good start, major multilateral development bank shareholders must be the driving force for transformative change, he continued.
“This week’s pre-COP can determine how this crucial issue will be handled in Sharm el-Shaikh,” he informed the media, noting that the world needs clarity from developed countries on the delivery of their $100 billion pledge to support climate action in developing countries,” he explained.
Story was adapted from UN News.
