UN Secretary-General António Guterres delivered an emphatic speech calling for immediate climate action, calling the current situation an “era of global boiling”.
“The air is unbreathable. The heat is unbearable. The level of profit from fossil fuels and climate inaction is unacceptable.”
“The aftermath is clear and tragic: children are swept away by monsoon rains, families flee fires and workers collapse in the sweltering heat.
“Climate change is here. It’s terrible. It’s just the beginning,” he concluded.
climate finance
In his speech on Thursday, Guterres aimed to touch the sensibilities of the leaders while ask for more money to fix the problem.
Under the Paris Agreement, rich countries pledged to provide developing countries with $100 billion a year to mitigate climate change.
This goal is to be achieved by 2020, but it didn’t happen.
Guterres also called on G20 members to New, Ambitious Goals to reduce their carbon emissions.
‘We need credible plans to get OECD countries off coal by 2030 and the rest of the world by 2040,’ he said.
He also talks about how to adapt to the effects of climate change by building flood barriers or designing cities to handle extreme heat, for example.
Biden’s response
From the White House, the President of the United States, joe bidenreacting to the extreme data revealed this Thursday and responding to Guterres’ speech.
He called climate change a “threat,” with extreme heat costing the country “a billion dollars a year,” acknowledging 100 million Americans are being affected by record temperatures.
Biden announced new heat hazard alerts, clarifying that workers exposed to heat, such as construction and agricultural workers, are protected by the federal government.
This is about a Texas law that removed certain protections for workers, such as water breaks.
unprecedented heat
Some experts believe that July this year may Hottest month in the past 120,000 years.
Humans have wrought havoc, which should inspire not despair, but action, Guterres said.
Scientists agree that unprecedented heat related to the use of fossil fuels.
Pollution from these fuels traps sunlight and creates a greenhouse around the planet, exacerbating extreme weather events.
“Unfortunately, the extreme weather that affected millions of people in July is the harsh reality of climate change and climate change. future previewWorld Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said.
“The need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is more urgent than ever. Climate action is not a luxury, it is an obligation,” Taalas said.
In addition to global warming, El Niño causes the ocean in the eastern Pacific to warm, releasing heat into the atmosphere. This phenomenon is likely to make 2023 or 2024 the hottest year on record.
“We can prevent the worst, but to do that we must turn a scorching year into an ambitious year and accelerate climate action now,” Guterres said.
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