1.5°C breach inevitable, world must cut emissions 6% annually: UN chief at COP31

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Guterres also argued for climate justice, pointing out that developing economies outside China account for nearly 1/3rds of humanity but receive less than 1/5th of global clean-energy investment | World News

A breach of the 1.5°C global warming threshold is now inevitable, but the world still has the power to determine how high temperatures rise and how long they remain above that limit, United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday, calling for global emissions to fall around 6% every year and a much faster transition away from fossil fuels.

“Global emissions must fall around 6 per cent every year. Current national plans, including conditional ones, deliver at best one-third of that,” he said, warning that the world was moving “far too slowly” at this stage.

Addressing the COP31 Leaders’ Summit as part of the high-level segment in Antalya, Guterres warned that current national climate plans, even if fully implemented, would put the world on a trajectory of more than 2.5°C warming by the end of the century.

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“Science tells us an overshoot above that level is now inevitable. But science is not telling us to surrender. It’s telling us to fight harder,” he said, adding that the extent and duration of the overshoot remains within humanity’s control.

Guterres also argued for climate justice, pointing out that emerging and developing economies outside China account for nearly two-thirds of humanity but receive less than one-fifth of global clean-energy investment. Most also pay two to three times more to borrow, making the transition considerably more expensive, he said.

“We cannot demand that countries transform their economies while denying them the means to do so,” he said, calling for a new Climate Justice Compact based on shared responsibility, shared security and shared benefits.

His remarks came as the COP31 presidency sought to put electrification at the centre of its efforts to accelerate the energy transition, with the proposed 35-by-35 Global Electrification Pledge drawing support from several countries and international leaders.

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