Humanity is “paying a terrible price” for inaction on global warming, with time running out to correct the course and avoid climate disaster, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Thursday.
A new report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) says the next decade is critical in the fight against climate change or any hope of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (34.7 degrees Fahrenheit) will be lost.
The current pace of climate action would result in a catastrophic 3.1 degrees of warming this century, UNEP said in its latest Emissions Gap report.
And even if all existing pledges to cut emissions were enacted as promised, global temperatures would soar 2.6 degrees above pre-industrial levels – a still devastating scenario for humanity.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the sidelines of the Brics summit in Kazan, Russia on Thursday. Photo: Sputnik / Mikhail Metzel / Pool via Reuters
“Either leaders bridge the emissions gap, or we plunge headlong into climate disaster, with the poorest and most vulnerable suffering the most,” said Guterres.