"We are moving further and further away from the goal of keeping global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius. "If we continue to do so, it may be impossible to keep global warming within even two degrees," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the Sustainable Development Economic Summit.
" Glasgow Conference has given us some naive optimism. Yes, we saw some progress in COP26. The countries pledged to stop deforestation and reduce methane emissions. But the main problem was not solved, it did not even get the right formulation. And the problem is the huge difference in emissions between countries. Keeping 1.5 alive requires a 45 per cent reduction in global emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by mid-century, which is almost impossible in the current conditions. This problem has not been solved in Glasgow, it continues to deepen after the conference. Last year alone, global carbon dioxide emissions increased by 6%, reaching the highest level in history.
The world is moving blindly to the edge of the abyss, no country, no corporation can escape the chaos of climate change. If we want to stop global warming, we must turn to the main culprit, the G20, whose developed economies account for 80 percent of emissions. The most dangerous is the great dependence on coal of countries like China, India and Indonesia.
The good news is that all G20 governments, including China, Japan and Korea, have agreed to cut off coal funding abroad. Now they urgently need to do the same at home, gradually dismantling their own coal infrastructure. Those who still finance the extraction and use of coal in the private sector should be held accountable. It's time to end fossil fuel subsidies, to stop expanding oil and gas exploration," Antonio Guterres said.
March 24, 2022 at 14:14