Governments, business leaders and development banks have two years to take action to prevent much worse climate change, the UN climate chief said on Wednesday in a speech that warned that global warming is undermining climate change. politicians' agendas.
Scientists say halving climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 is crucial to preventing a rise in temperatures of more than 1.5°C, which would bring more extreme weather and heat.
However, last year, global energy-related CO2 emissions rose to a record level. Current commitments to combat climate change are unlikely to reduce global emissions by 2030.
Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said the next two years are “essential to saving our planet”.
“We still have the opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with a new generation of national climate plans. But we need these stronger plans now,” he said.
Speaking at an event at the Chatham House think tank in London, Stiell said the Group of 20 major economic powers – together responsible for 80% of global emissions – urgently needed to move forward.
The main task of this year's UN climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan, is for countries to agree on a new target for climate finance to support developing countries struggling to invest in moving away from fossil fuels and combating to climate change.
UN climate summits have increased in size in recent years, with thousands of lobbyists and business representatives present alongside government delegations directly involved in the negotiations.
Almost 84,000 people attended last year's COP28 summit in Dubai, drawing criticism from activists after more than 2,000 fossil fuel lobbyists registered to attend.
Stiell said he would like to see future COP meetings reduced in size while prioritizing strong negotiating outcomes. He said he was talking to Azerbaijan and Brazil – hosts of the next two UN climate summits – about this.
He also called for raising more climate finance through debt relief, cheaper financing for poorer countries, new sources of international financing such as a tax on shipping emissions, and reforms at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
“Every day, finance ministers, CEOs, investors, and climate and development bankers direct trillions of dollars. It’s time to move those dollars,” Stiell said.
In a bumper year for elections around the world – with voters in India, South Africa and the United States heading to the polls – Stiell warned that climate action was often “slipping through cabinet agendas”.
Politicians from Republican leader Donald Trump in the United States to far-right parties seeking gains in upcoming European Union elections have pushed back on climate policies while courting voters.
Source: CNN Brasil
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