Antonio Guterres says breaching the Paris climate goal is now “inevitable,” urging the world to change course before disaster strikes.
The UN secretary-general on Tuesday warned that humanity has failed to limit global warming to 1.5°C (2.7°F) and must urgently alter course.
It is now “inevitable” that humanity will exceed the Paris Agreement’s target, leading to “devastating consequences” for the world, Antonio Guterres told the Guardian ahead of the COP30 climate summit in November.
Guterres urged leaders, who will convene in the Brazilian rainforest city of Belem, to understand that the longer they delay reducing emissions, the higher the risk of crossing catastrophic “tipping points” in the Amazon, the Arctic and the oceans.
“Let’s recognise our failure. The truth is that we have failed to avoid an overshooting above 1.5C in the next few years.
“And that going above 1.5C has devastating consequences. Some of these devastating consequences are tipping points, be it in the Amazon, be it in Greenland, or western Antarctica or the coral reefs,” he stated.
The main goal at COP30 is to change course, the UN chief highlighted, warning that the world must minimize the duration and extent of exceeding the 1.5°C limit to prevent critical tipping points like the degradation of the Amazon.
“We don’t want to see the Amazon as a savannah. But that is a real risk if we don’t change course and if we don’t make a dramatic decrease of emissions as soon as possible,” added Guterres.
