The head of the United Nations warned Wednesday that the 㽶Ƶֱgates of hell㽶Ƶֱ are at hand as intensifies, and top international officials said the world㽶Ƶֱs leaders still aren㽶Ƶֱt doing nearly enough to curb pollution of heat-trapping gases.
They pleaded with major emitting nations to do more.
Those nations remained silent. They weren㽶Ƶֱt allowed to speak because, organizers said, they had no new actions to take.
The only countries that touted their efforts 㽶Ƶֱ 㽶Ƶֱfirst movers and doers,㽶Ƶֱ the United Nations called them 㽶Ƶֱ were responsible for just one-ninth of the world㽶Ƶֱs annual carbon pollution.
㽶ƵֱHumanity has opened the gates of hell,㽶Ƶֱ U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Wednesday, opening a special climate ambition summit with yet another plea for action. 㽶Ƶֱ is having horrendous effects. Distraught farmers watching crops carried away by floods. Sweltering temperatures spawning disease. And thousands fleeing in fear as historic fires rage.㽶Ƶֱ
Guterres convened the summit with the idea that only world leaders who came with new concrete actions would get to address their peers on the issue. But leaders of the countries that produce the most heat-trapping gases themselves chose not to even ask.
Heads of state from China, the United States, India, Russia, the United Kingdom and France all skipped the summit. The United States, which has put the most carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over the decades, sent its climate envoy, John Kerry, to the summit even though President Joe Biden was in town. Then the United Nations didn㽶Ƶֱt give Kerry a speaking spot. But California Gov. Gavin Newsom was given the space to speak and tout his state㽶Ƶֱs efforts.
The 32 national leaders who did qualify represent only 11% of the world㽶Ƶֱs carbon dioxide pollution. China and the United States both emit more carbon dioxide than those 32 countries combined. The European Commission㽶Ƶֱs president was also permitted to speak.
㽶ƵֱWe are in the final stages of what actions are needed to preserve this planet and regrettably I㽶Ƶֱm not sure everybody is getting it,㽶Ƶֱ said Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who called on debt pauses and cancellations and changes in multinational development banks and the insurance industry.
Mottley, a leader of poorer nations struck frequently by extreme weather, lamented that everybody was paying attention to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who was speaking at the same time While she stands in support of Ukraine, she said, climate change is 㽶Ƶֱa greater threat because more lives are at stake globally than they are in Ukraine.㽶Ƶֱ
EXTRA EFFORTS CALLED FOR
Even though the world in 2015 adopted (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, instead Earth is on a path to warming 2.8 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Fahrenheit) 㽶Ƶֱ 㽶Ƶֱa dangerous and unstable world,㽶Ƶֱ Guterres warned. The world has already warmed at least 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) since the middle of the 19th century.
㽶ƵֱBut the future is not fixed. It is for leaders like you to write it,㽶Ƶֱ Guterres said.
Guterres called on 㽶Ƶֱmajor emitters 㽶Ƶֱ who have benefitted most from fossil fuels 㽶Ƶֱ to make extra efforts to cut emissions, and on wealthy countries to support emerging economies to do so.㽶Ƶֱ They were silent.
㽶ƵֱThere㽶Ƶֱs no doubt that the absence of so many leaders from the world㽶Ƶֱs biggest economies and emitters will clearly have an impact on the outcomes of the summit and diminish the contribution that many of us had hoped it could make,㽶Ƶֱ said longtime climate negotiations analyst Alden Meyer of the European think-tank 3EG.
On the same day Guterres called for more and faster cuts in heat-trapping emissions and in spending helping poor countries shift to renewable energy and adapt to a warmer world, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appeared poised to 㽶Ƶֱ and go in the opposite direction.
In contrast, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen crowed about how their members pledged to reduce carbon pollution 55% by 2030 and is doing even better than that.
Guterres, a new special U.N. report on the lack of progress in the fight against climate change, activists and some scientists have called for a phase-out of fossil fuels coal, oil and natural gas. But international negotiations keep away from adopting such a big move.
SMALLER NATIONS CAN㽶ƵֱT GO IT ALONE
On Wednesday, Guterres once again pushed for an end to fossil fuel subsidies, something he said 㽶Ƶֱreached an incredible $7 trillion in 2022.㽶Ƶֱ The secretary-general criticized 㽶Ƶֱthe naked greed of entrenched interests raking in billions from fossil fuels.㽶Ƶֱ
He called on wealthy nations to fulfill their $100 billion pledges to help poorer countries deal with climate change. The United States is one of the countries that hasn㽶Ƶֱt done so. The U.N. chief also pushed for countries to spend even more than they㽶Ƶֱve promised and put in money to a 㽶Ƶֱloss and damage㽶Ƶֱ fund agreed upon last year that are sort of payments to help nations harmed by extreme weather from global warming.
Africa 㽶Ƶֱcan leapfrog into a fully green industrial paradigm,㽶Ƶֱ㽶Ƶֱ Kenyan President William Ruto said. 㽶ƵֱYet we cannot and must not do this on our own.㽶Ƶֱ
To get there, Africa needs the world to change its debt and credit systems, an extra $500 billion in financial help and a global tax, Ruto said. 㽶ƵֱWhat we need is fairness 㽶Ƶֱ a fair financial system.㽶Ƶֱ
A NEW HOPE
Sultan Al Jaber, who will run the upcoming climate negotiations in Dubai, put a giant number on the problem: 22 billion metric tons. That㽶Ƶֱs how much carbon dioxide emissions the world has to cut in the next seven years to reach the world㽶Ƶֱs climate-fighting goal. Then he came up with a bigger number: It will cost the globe between $4 trillion and $5 trillion a year, he said.
㽶ƵֱIt㽶Ƶֱs easy to feel overwhelmed by the scale of this challenge,㽶Ƶֱ Al Jaber told the summit. 㽶ƵֱLet㽶Ƶֱs go after the gigatons, not each other.㽶Ƶֱ
Experts and United Nations reports say the world needs to reduce emissions by 43% in the next seven years to reach the goal set by the 2015 Paris agreement.
㽶ƵֱThis started as the climate ambition summit, and I believe it ends as the climate hope summit,㽶Ƶֱ Guterres said, wrapping up the day-long meetings.
The promises and actions dischssed Wednesday keep alive the world㽶Ƶֱs chances of limiting warming to the international goal, Guterres said.
㽶ƵֱWe are not yet there,㽶Ƶֱ he said. But there are cities, regions and companies that are leading the way. 㽶ƵֱIf these first movers and first doers can do it, everybody can do it.㽶Ƶֱ
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