UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is calling world leaders at the UN Summit To pay up, or humanity will pay the price saying the world is in its final countdown to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Delivering his Opening remarks, the United nations secretary General said this year is set to be the hottest on record and has so far been a “masterclass in climate destruction”.
”Families running for their lives before the next hurricane strikes;
Biodiversity destroyed in sweltering seas;
Workers and pilgrims collapsing in insufferable heat;
Floods tearing through communities, and tearing down infrastructure;
Children going to bed hungry as droughts ravage crops.
All these disasters, and more, are being supercharged by human-made climate change.
And no country is spared’’
He also called on countries to advance global goals to triple renewables capacity, double energy efficiency, and halt deforestation by 2030;
‘’Now more than ever finance promises must be kept. Developed countries must race the clock to double adaptation finance to at least $40 billion a year by 2025.
Adaptation investments can transform economies, driving progress across the sustainable development goals.
We need countries’ new climate action plans to set out adaptation financing needs.
We need every person on earth to be protected by an alert system by 2027, in line with our Early
Warnings for All initiative.
And we need climate justice’’
Guterres set out three main priorities: “emergency” cuts to emissions with the G20 leading, protecting people from the “ravages of the climate crisis” and “tearing down the walls” to climate finance.
The UN Secretary-General emphasised that developing countries must not leave COP29 “empty-handed”.
“Climate finance is not charity, it’s an investment. Climate action is not optional, it’s imperative. Both are indispensable: to a liveable world for all humanity.”
