UN Secretary-General says US and China must unite to lead global climate pact

UN Secretary-General António Guterres opened the summit of heads of state attending COP27 by calling on the United States and China to come together to lead a climate agreement between developed and emerging economies.

Guterres said it was the duty of geopolitical rivals to fight climate change to form what he described as a climate solidarity pact.

“The two largest economies have a particular responsibility to make the pact a reality. That is our only hope for achieving the climate goals. Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish,” he said.

The leaders of the two countries, however, were not present at the meeting that brought together more than 120 heads of state from around the world to discuss how to reduce and avoid negative impacts on the environment.

USA and China are the most polluting countries in the world.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, recently reappointed for an unprecedented third term in office, simply decided not to attend the meeting, which is the most important of the year on the subject.

His US counterpart, Joe Biden, has decided to stay in the US to follow the midterm elections, but has promised to attend COP27 next week.

Beijing had until recently been collaborating with Washington on efforts to reduce the impacts of climate change, but it suspended discussions after Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, visited Taiwan in August.

Despite the leading role of the US and China in the pact proposed by Guterres, the secretary reinforced the need for union between all already developed and developing countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“We are in the fight of our lives. And we’re losing. Annual temperatures continue to rise (…) We are on a road to climate hell, with our foot on the accelerator”

said the secretary general

Guterres proposed a model of union in which rich countries and international financial institutions provide financial and technical assistance so that emerging economies can accelerate their transitions from renewable energy, and no longer rely on fossil fuels.

In addition, the secretary argued that half of climate-related revenue should be directed towards climate adaptation measures. “We need a roadmap on how this will be delivered.”

Russia’s war in Ukraine was cited by the UN Secretary General as one of the world’s conflicts and plagues.

It is still difficult to measure the extent of the climate impacts of Putin’s invasion, but with the arrival of winter, for many Ukrainians and Russians, there will be no alternative but to return to using coal for heating, which should contribute to an even greater volume of gases. causes of the greenhouse effect.

But apart from the war in Ukraine, for Guterres, climate-related conflicts are the main theme of the century. “Climate changes are on another timeline, on a different scale.”

The secretary returned to defending smaller environmental goals, with a maximum term of five years, and asked that the G-20, a group of which Brazil is a part, also accelerate the transition to have green economies as quickly as possible.

The secretary also called on the OECD to end its dependence on oil by 2030. “We are getting close to the point of no return”.