The UN chief has claimed a ‘leadership gap’ is undermining global efforts to curb global warming, days before presidents and prime ministers from across the globe meet for a climate change summit in Glasgow.
General Antonio Guterres told reporters on Tuesday that the time for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to reach the objectives of the 2015 Paris Accord and averting global warming risks harming the planet is running short.
“now leaders need to be just as clear in their actions.”Antonio Guterres
Guterres said scientists were unconcerned about the facts behind climate change, and added:”now leaders need to be just as clear in their actions.”
Guterres spoke as the UN Environment Programme unveiled a new report that found new commitments to reduce emissions by governments raise hopes, but insufficient rigour to limit global warming to over 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.
It concluded that, when fully implemented, some countries “recent pledges to pursue” net zero “emissions by 2050 could limit global temperature growth to 2.2 degrees Celsius.
This is closer, but still above the less stringent Paris Agreement climate agreement objective of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels.
The US, the European Union and dozens of other countries have set themselves net zero emission targets.
The Environment Programme’s report, however, states that the net zero targets that many governments have announced ahead of next week’s UN Climate Summit in Glasgow are vaguely defined, with a large part of the burden of cuts pushed into beyond 2030.