UN chief Guterres says global warming goal on 'life support'

• The UN chief said it is a “climate emergency” and supported the young climate activists

• Guterres praised the agreement between the U.S. and China

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday said the target to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is “on life support” as the COP26 climate summit enters its final days.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Guterres said the negotiations wouldn’t “very probably” yield the carbon-cutting pledges needed to keep the planet from warming beyond the threshold.

However, he said, “until the last moment, hope should be maintained” for cutting carbon emissions by about half by 2030, which is one of the three main priorities for the UN’s annual conference.

The other two are getting rich and developed nations to pledge to finance $100 billion a year for climate aid to developing countries and ensuring that half of that amount goes to help adapt to the worst effects of climate change.

Guterres said the summit negotiations “are in a crucial moment” and need to accomplish more than securing a weak deal.

“The worst thing would be to reach an agreement at all costs by a minimum common denominator that would not respond to the huge challenges we face,” Guterres told AP.

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The primary goal of the UN climate summit of limiting global warming by the end of the century “is still in reach but on life support,” Guterres said. The world has already warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius, leaving some fraction of degrees before the threshold is hit.

“When you are on the verge of the abyss, it’s not important to discuss what will be your fourth or fifth step,” Guterres told AP. “What’s important to discuss is what will be your first step. Because if your first step is the wrong step, you will not have the chance to do a search to make a second or third one.”

Climate emergency

Moreover, the summit saw daily protests by the young climate activists in large numbers asking the U.N. to term global warming a “climate emergency” of a high level and treat it as such.

The UN chief said he agreed with the activists. “For me, it is clear it is a climate emergency,” Guterres told AP. “I have asked all member states to declare it, and I will be making sure that we mobilize the whole of the UN system based on the concept of a climate emergency.”

“The pandemic is reversible. We have the tools and the instruments to stop it,” he said. “Climate change is a global threat to the planet and to humankind. And for the moment, we have not yet all the tools and the instruments that we need to defeat it.”

US-China deal

However, Guterres praised the deal between the U.S. and China, the world’s two biggest greenhouse gas emitters, to cut emissions and said China’s pledge to phase out coal consumption from 2026 to 2030 represented a crucial change in the top emitter’s outlook.

Also Read: U.S.-China come together to deal with climate challenges

“I believe it will be very important that this agreement paves the way for other agreements,” Guterres said.

The U.N. chief said he hoped that two issues — creating workable markets for trading carbon credits and transparency regarding promised pollution-reducing actions — that defied resolution for six years can be solved in Glasgow.

Picture Credit: United Nations