Guterres calls for climate action
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has made an impassioned appeal for the world to intensify action to combat climate change and implement the Paris Agreement to limit carbon emissions. United States President Donald Trump was yesterday still debating whether the US will withdraw from the accord.
Guterres never mentioned the US leader by name in his speech at New York University’s Stern School of Business, his first major address on climate change since taking the reins of the UN on January 1. But he said in response to a question afterward that the UN believes “it would be important for the US not to leave the Paris agreement”.
Guterres said “it’s very important for US society as a whole — the cities, the states, the companies, the businesses — to remain engaged”.
Trump was expected to make an announcement this week on whether the US will remain a party to the climate accord that his predecessor, Barack Obama, strongly supported and signed.
Nearly 200 nations agreed in 2015 to voluntarily reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As of yesterday, 147 nations had ratified the Paris Agreement, representing more than 82 per cent of global emissions, he said.
Guterres said their pledges to limit the global temperature rise to below 2C and as close as possible to 1.5C “are historic — but still do not go nearly far enough to limit temperature rise”.
“Commitments so far could still see temperatures rise by 3C or more,” he warned.
“So we must do our utmost to increase ambition and action until we can bend the emissions curve and slow down global warming.”