World is “losing the race” to avert climate disaster: UN Secy-General

GENEVA: Addressing a press conference on September 17, Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary- General said, “The world is “losing the race” to avert climate disaster, but that greenhouse gas reduction targets is not out of reach as of yet.”

The address was made days before a UN youth climate summit that will be followed by a meeting with world leaders, where he will urge countries to raise their commitments set under the Paris agreement.

The landmark accord signed by various countries saw them pledge to limit the long-term rise in the average temperature of the Earth to two degree Celsius over pre-industrial levels, and if possible to 1.5 degree Celsius.

“What I want is to have the whole of society putting pressure on governments to make governments understand they need to run faster, because we are losing the race,” he said, adding: “What the science tells us today is that these targets are still reachable.” Guterres said that inaction by some key countries, including the US, could be at least partly offset by action at the sub-national level, for example in the carbon neutral pledges made by the states of California and New York.

“I think one of the best things of the US society is the fact that it is a federal country…that decisions are decentralised, so I will be always very strongly in favor of keeping decisions on climate change as decentralised as possible,” he said. Guterres commended India and China’s push to promote renewable energy, especially solar power, saying he sensed a “new wind” in the renewable energy development across the world.

Failure to meet the goals laid out under the Paris agreement could lead to the crossing of so-called “tipping points” such as the thawing of the Earth’s permafrost that further accelerate warming, creating a situation where extreme weather events become the norm.

Guterres said he was heartened by growing societal awareness, which meant that hope was not yet lost, “but that requires profound changes in the way we produce food, in the way we power our economies, in the way we organise our cities, in the way we produce energy.” “I feel that more and more people, companies, cities, and governments, are understanding that needs to be done,” he said.