At the opening of a summit on the fight against global warming, Antonio Guterres spoke of the “terrible heat” and “historic fires” of the current year.
The UN Secretary-General warned on Wednesday September 20 that humanity’s addiction to fossil fuels had “opened the gates of hell”, by launching a summit in New York on the fight against global warming. Evoking the “terrible heat” and the “historic fires” this year, fueled by greenhouse gas emissions due to human activities, Antonio Guterres however 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.
Antonio Guterres therefore convened this summit of “common sense” where invited leaders must announce specific actions to achieve their commitments made under the 2015 Paris agreement. But the entry ticket 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.
The United States and China are largely absent
“There will be no room for backtracking, greenwashing, dodging responsibilities or repackaging announcements from previous years”, he warned when announcing this meeting at the end of December 2022. 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 and China.
The United Kingdom is also not included in the program. His Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, suggested on Tuesday that he could return to the objective of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. The European Union, on the other hand, is invited to present its climate policies, just like Brazil, Canada, or South Africa. As well as France, whose President Emmanuel Macron is not in New York.