‘It’s just not enough’

UN’s Guterres calls for ‘transformational change’ on climate

GOVERNMENTS must deliver decisive actions and “transformational change” to combat global warming, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Sunday, blasting a recent climate summit in Madrid.

The so-called COP25 climate talks in the Spanish capital in December were supposed to build on breakthrough promises made at the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris.

Instead, governments equivocated and observers decried their response as inadequate and unambitious.

“Our planet is burning but too many decision makers continue to fiddle,” Mr Guterres said in a speech he delivered in Islamabad.

“The only answer is decisive climate action … Gradual approaches are no longer enough.”

A United Nations panel concluded late in 2018 that avoiding global climate chaos will require a major transformation of society and the world economy.

The landmark report said global CO2 emissions must drop 45 per cent by 2030, and reach “net zero” by 2050, to cap temperature rise at 1.5 degrees Celsius, the safe cap set as a goal in the Paris accord.

Mr Guterres said that at the next climate conference, the COP26 in Glasgow later this year, “governments must deliver the transformational change our world needs and that people demand, with much stronger ambition.”

Mr Guterres said rich countries should lead the way, including by ending “perverse” fossil fuel subsidies.

Following a year of deadly extreme weather and weekly protests by millions of young people, Madrid negotiators were under pressure to send a clear signal that governments were willing to intensify efforts.

The summit was at times close to collapse as rich polluters, emerging powerhouses and climate-vulnerable nations groped for common ground amid competing interests.