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– The state of the planet is destroyed. Humanity is waging a war against nature. This is suicidal, the UN chief said in a speech at Columbia University on Wednesday.
Two recent UN reports document weather records and the increasing extraction of fossil fuels in the past year.
“Apocalyptic fires and floods, cyclones and hurricanes have increasingly become the new norm,” Guterres said.
Healing in 2021?
Guterres is now challenging world leaders to ensure that 2021 is the year humanity commits to a future free from global warming.
The rebuilding of society after the covid-19 pandemic could give humanity a new chance to save the planet, believes the UN chief.
– Next year we have the opportunity to stop the looting and begin to heal. Curing Covid and repairing our planet should be two sides of the same coin, says Guterres.
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Laguna Cerro in Paraguay has been greatly affected by drought and pollution. An overheated world broke weather records in 2020, which according to the UN was also an extreme year for hurricanes, fires, floods, heat waves and snowmelt. Photo: Jorge Saenz / AP
Fossil energy
Oil, gas and coal production must fall by 6 percent annually in the future if the world is to avoid catastrophic global warming, a new UN report warns.
Guterres calls for a reduction in the use of fossil fuels and hopes that the UN digital climate summit in France will show a new way forward. It is celebrated on December 12, the fifth anniversary of the historic Paris Agreement.
2020 is destined to be one of the three warmest years ever recorded, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
– A new world is taking shape, says Guterres.
Overfishing
– Biodiversity is collapsing. One million species are in danger of extinction. Ecosystems disappear before our eyes. Deserts are spreading. Wetlands are lost. Every year we lose 100 million acres of forest.
– In the oceans there is overfishing and they are suffocated by plastic waste. The carbon dioxide they absorb acidifies the seas. Coral reefs fade and die. Air and water pollution kills nine million people a year,
No vaccine
For this reason, we must have as top priority “to make peace with nature,” says Guterres, who warns:
– There are no vaccines for the planet.
Guterres praises early carbon neutrality commitments from China, the EU, Japan and South Korea and hopes the movement will go global.
– Every country, city, financial institution and company must adopt plans for a transition to zero emissions by 2050, says the UN Secretary General.
