Antonio Guterres, the head of the United Nations, has warned the world leaders gathering in Egypt for the COP27 climate summit that mankind must choose between cooperating or committing “collective death” in the fight against global warming.
Nearly 100 heads of state and government are gathering in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where they are being urged to further reduce emissions and provide financial support to developing nations already suffering from the effects of global warming.
The option is between cooperation and extinction for humanity, Guterres said at the meeting on Monday.
“It is either a climate solidarity contract or a collective suicide pact,” Guterres said, pleading with richer, more polluting nations to help out poorer, less polluting nations.
With tens of billions of dollars in damage and thousands of fatalities this year alone due to devastating floods in Nigeria and Pakistan, droughts in Kenya, Somalia, and the United States, and unheard-of heatwaves across three continents, nations around the world are dealing with increasingly severe natural disasters.
The annual conference is being held in Egypt till November 18; Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi noted, “We have seen one calamity after another.” “As soon as we deal with one calamity, another one pops up, causing loss and misery in waves.
“Isn’t it time to put a stop to all of this pain?’
However, Guterres warned leaders that they must not put climate change on the “back burner”.
He urged countries to increase emissions in order to meet the more ambitious Paris Agreement target of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels. He called for a “historic” agreement between wealthy polluters and rising economies.
By the end of the decade, current trends would result in a 10% rise in carbon pollution and a 2.8C increase in surface temperature (5F).
He observed that despite years of climate negotiations—the Egypt COP is the 27th Conference of the Parties—progress has not been enough to prevent dangerous global warming because nations are moving too slowly or reluctantly.
“Greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase. The earth’s temperature is increasing. The climate turmoil on our planet is also rapidly approaching tipping points, according to him, which will be unreversible. “With our foot remaining on the accelerator, we are traveling down a motorway to climate hell.”
The head of the UN requested that nations come to an agreement to phase out coal use, one of the fuels with the highest carbon content, by 2040, with OECD members reaching that goal by 2030.
