March 13 (UPI) — United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday that the world is at a crossroads on actions about global warming despite years of warnings and studies by the organization’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Guterres spoke in a video message at the opening of the IPCC’s meeting to approve the final component of its sixth assessment report on the climate in Interlaken, Switzerland, which will run through Friday. Guterres said world leaders are simply not doing enough to address global warming issues.
“We are nearing the point of no return; of overshooting the internationally agreed limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming,” Guterres said. “We are at the tip of a tipping point. But it is not too late — as you have shown.”
Guterres said the IPCC showed in its report last year, covering where the world pulled back on travel and use of fossil fuels because of the COVID-19 pandemic, that it is a realistic goal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees with rapid and deep emissions reductions across all global sectors.
“Your recent reports have also underscored the need to act now,” Guterres said. “In 2021, you concluded for the first time that some of the changes to Earth’s oceans, ice and land surface were irreversible.
“These changes were ‘unequivocally’ caused by human activity, overwhelmingly due to burning fossil fuels and creating unprecedented levels of greenhouse gases. In 2022, you showed that nearly half the global population is living in the danger zone of climate impacts and that we must scale up investments in adaptation.”
During the meeting, the IPCC will review its Summary for Policymakers line by line and adopt its Synthesis Report to the Sixth Assessment Report.
“Once approved, the Synthesis Report will become a fundamental policy document for shaping climate action in the remainder of this pivotal decade,” IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee said in a statement.
“For policymakers of today and tomorrow, a much-needed textbook for addressing climate change. Make no mistake, inaction and delays are not listed as options.”
