2023-09-20 14:41:38
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Wednesday that humanity’s addiction to fossil fuels had “opened the gates of hell”, launching a summit on the fight once morest global warming, without China or United States.
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Referring to the “terrible heat” and “historic fires” this year, fueled by greenhouse gas emissions, he nevertheless stressed that it was not too late “to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1, 5°C”.
“The future is not written: it is up to you, the leaders, to write it,” he warned.
“We can still build a world with clean air, green jobs, and clean, affordable energy for all,” he added.
Despite the multiplication and intensification of extreme weather events, greenhouse gas emissions responsible for warming continue to increase and the fossil fuel sector is reaping record profits.
So Antonio Guterres convened this “common sense” summit where invited leaders must announce specific actions to achieve their commitments made under the 2015 Paris agreement.
No “dodge”
But the entry fee is high. The Secretary General was very clear, only the most ambitious, particularly in terms of carbon neutrality objectives, have the right to express themselves.
“There will be no room for retreats, greenwashing, dodging responsibilities or repackaging announcements from previous years,” he warned when announcing this meeting at the end of December.
On Tuesday, he insisted in his speech to the UN General Assembly that he only intended to welcome “actors likely to move the lines”.
After receiving more than a hundred responses from countries justifying their action, the UN finally published the list of the lucky ones on Tuesday evening.
And it has some notable absentees, in particular the two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases: the United States, while President Joe Biden will still be in New York, and China, whose president has not made the trip to the Annual General Meeting.
The United Kingdom is also not on the agenda, while its Prime Minister Rishi Sunak suggested on Tuesday that he might return to the goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050.
The European Union, on the other hand, is invited to present its climate policies, just like Brazil, Canada, and South Africa. As well as France, whose President Emmanuel Macron is not in New York, and many countries on the front line once morest the impacts of global warming, such as Barbados, Samoa, or Tuvalu.
The Secretary General also invited non-state actors, such as the Governor of California and the Mayor of London.
«Correction»
“Maybe it’s good news that Biden doesn’t have a slot to speak at the summit,” commented Catherine Abreu, of the NGO Destination Zero, pointing to plans to develop fossil fuels in the United States. United.
“This is a correction from previous summits where leaders had the opportunity to take credit for climate leadership on the international stage, as they pursued plans to expand fossil fuels fueling the climate crisis at home,” she added.
The summit is the most important climate meeting in the United States since 2019, when Swedish activist Greta Thunberg gave world leaders her famous “how dare you?”
Anger is growing among climate activists, particularly young people, who last weekend once once more took to the streets of New York in their thousands during a march once morest fossil fuels.
Observers are impatiently waiting to see what the leaders of Canada and the European Union will say on Wednesday, in particular, on their own ambitions but also on their financial commitments to help the most vulnerable countries cope with the warming of which they are the least affected. responsible.
The failure of rich countries to respect their aid promises to developing countries is a particularly sensitive point in international climate negotiations.
A controversy which will undoubtedly be on the menu once more at COP28 in a few weeks.
In good news, Colombia, which will participate in Wednesday’s summit, and Panama, joined the alliance of countries committing to phasing out coal on Tuesday.
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