Faced with global warming, the world’s response is “pitiful”, denounces the head of the UN, Antonio Guterres

“We are rushing towards disaster with our eyes wide open.” The world’s collective response to global warming is “pitiful”denounced, Thursday, June 15, the Secretary General of the UN. “Current policies lead the world towards a warming of +2.8°C by the end of the century. This announces a catastrophe”declared Antonio Guterres, who criticized, during a press conference, the fact that “far too many people [soient] willing to bet everything on wishful thinking, unproven technologies or quick fixes.”

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“Countries are falling far short of delivering on their climate promises and commitments. I see a lack of ambition. A lack of trust. A lack of support. A lack of cooperation. And a plethora of clarity and credibility issues.”hammered the secretary general, who will organize a summit on climate action in New York on September 20. “It’s time to wake up and pick up the pace”he pleaded, believing that respecting the ideal objective of the Paris agreement (limiting global warming to +1.5°C) is “still possible”.

“The problem is fossil fuels”

Antonio Guterres notably attacked fossil fuels once again, “incompatible” with the survival of mankind: “The problem isn’t just fossil fuel emissions. It’s fossil fuels themselves, period.” The sector’s industries, coal, oil and gas, are prime targets of the secretary-general, who has urged them to move away from products “incompatible with human survival”.

The senior official, who spoke Thursday morning with a dozen representatives of civil society on this issue, also denounced the fact that “the human rights of climate activists are violated”. “In all societies, without exception, the voices of civil society must be heard. They must participate at the negotiating table for the development of policies, and on the ground to help bring about change”he insisted.