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(UN) – Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned on Monday that the world was facing a "direct existential threat" and that it needed to quickly switch from dependence on fossil fuels by 2020 to prevent "the uncontrolled climate change ".
The US leader called the crisis a matter of urgency and denounced the lack of global leadership to fight global warming.
"Climate change is moving faster than us," Guterres said. "We must curb deadly emissions of greenhouse gases and drive climate action."
He said people around the world are experiencing record temperatures – and extreme heat waves, forest fires, storms and floods "leave a trail of death and devastation".
As an example, Guterres has drawn attention to Kerala, the worst monsoon flood in recent history in India, nearly 3,000 killed Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico last year. Food chains and high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere threaten food security for billions of people.
Guterres said scientists have warned of global warming for decades, but "far too many leaders have refused to listen – too few have acted with the vision demanded by science."
When 190 countries signed the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement, they agreed to limit the increase in global temperature from 2100 to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and move closer to home. possible of 1.5 degrees.
"These goals were the bare minimum to avoid the worst impacts of climate change," Guterres said. "But scientists tell us we are far from the track."
"According to a US study, the commitments made so far by the parties to the Paris agreement represent only one third of what is needed," said the secretary-general.
Guterres said that the mountain to climb is very high – but not insurmountable.
"We need to move quickly away from our dependence on fossil fuels," he said. "We need to replace them with clean energy from water, wind and sun. We must put an end to deforestation, restore degraded forests and change our mode of production. "
He called on leaders – "politicians and leaders, businesses and scientists, and the public everywhere" – to break what he called the "paralysis" of today and act now.
"If we do not change course by 2020, we risk missing the point where we can avoid climate change, with disastrous consequences for people and all the natural systems that support us," warned Guterres.
The alternative to switching to green energy, he said, "is a dark and dangerous future".
Guterres said when he speaks to world leaders at their annual general meeting in two weeks, he will tell them that "climate change is the big challenge of our time." What is missing is the leadership and sense of urgency to react.
He said that an international meeting in Bangkok that ended on Sunday had progressed in the negotiations to help reach an agreement in December in Poland on the guidelines for the implementation of the I & # 39; Paris 2015 agreement – but far from enough.
"Nothing less than our future and the fate of humanity depends on our ability to meet the climate challenge," Guterres said. "Warming our planet to less than 2 degrees Celsius is essential for global prosperity, the well-being of people and the security of nations."
He said that is why he will convene a climate summit for world leaders in September 2019 "in order to put climate action at the top of the international agenda".
Guterres said that technology is on the side of those seeking to combat climate change.
He cited the increasing use of renewable energy, saying "today, it is competitive – and even cheaper – than coal and oil, especially if one takes into account the cost of Pollution". , Scotland and Thailand.
Guterres also pointed to other signs of hope, including oil-rich Saudi Arabia, which is investing heavily in renewable energy and the country's sovereign wealth fund, the largest in the world. forests that they destroy.
