UN Secretary-General António Guterres briefs reporters on the climate crisis following his recent travel to Chile and Antarctica. PHOTO/ Eskinder Debebe.
By PATRICK MAYOYO
World leaders at this week’s climate conference, COP28, must break the deadly cycle of global warming before a “deadly tipping point” is reached, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, has said.
Mr.Guterres said new figures reveal that sea ice at the South Pole is now 1.5 million square kilometres below average for this time of year; that’s equal to the combined surface area of Portugal, Spain, France and Germany combined.
“What happens in Antarctica doesn’t stay in Antarctica”, Mr. Guterres said. “We live in an interconnected world. Melting sea ice means rising seas. And that directly endangers lives and livelihoods in coastal communities across the globe.
The UN chief was briefing reporters in New York after seeing for himself over the weekend the “profoundly shocking” speed at which ice is melting in Antarctica – three times faster than the rate in the early 1990s.
Nowhere to hide
He noted that it’s not just the impact of floods and saltwater on food and water supplies at stake, but the viability of small islands and entire cities on coasts across the world.
“The movement of waters around Antarctica distributes heat, nutrients and carbon around the world, helping to regulate our climate and regional weather patterns”, he told correspondents outside the Security Council.
“But that system is slowing as the southern Ocean grows warmer and less dense. Further slowdown – or entire breakdown – would spell catastrophe.”
‘Calamitous’ rise
With no let-up in fossil fuel extraction “we’re heading towards a calamitous three-degree Celsius temperature rise by the end of the century”, he warned.
:If we continue as we are, and I strongly hope we will not, the Greenland and West Antarctica ice sheets will cross a deadly tipping point.”
This represents an astonishing rise of around 10 metres.
The vicious cycle means accelerated heating as ice diminishes and more extreme weather. At COP28 in Dubai, which starts today week, “leaders must break this cycle”, the UN chief declared.
The solutions are there
“The solutions are well known. Leaders must act to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, protect people from climate chaos, and end the fossil fuel age.”
Only a global pact to triple renewable energy use, a doubling in energy efficiency and access to clean power for all by 2030, will be sufficient, he argued.
“Antarctica is crying out for action”, the Secretary-General added. “I salute the thousands of researchers – in Antarctica and around the world – expanding our understanding of the changes taking place on the continent.
“They are testament to human ingenuity and the immense benefits of international collaboration. Leaders must not let the hopes of people around the world for a sustainable planet melt away.”
Meanwhile, businesses, investors, cities, states and regions are stepping up to take climate action in greater numbers than ever before – just not at the pace or scale needed to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to the 2023 edition of the Yearbook of Global Climate Action released at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) today.
“Climate action needs to accelerate everywhere. Systems transformation, from energy and transport to our relationship with nature and our social systems, is essential to rapidly reducing emissions and building resilience,” said UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell.
Mr Stiell said greater collaboration between Parties and non-Party stakeholders “is an opportunity to radically enhance action towards our collective climate goals.”
The 2023 Yearbook, the seventh of the series, provides an overview of the progress, trends and challenges of real-world climate action taken by non-Party stakeholders.
Global Climate Action Portal
For example, the Yearbook reports that the Global Climate Action Portal – a platform that tracks climate action around the globe – now has more than 32,000 registered actors, an increase of approximately 6% from what was reported in 2022, and almost six times higher than in 2015.
However, gaps remain, both in terms of increasing the geographical coverage and breadth of climate action of the portal itself but also in the solutions being pursued by non-Party stakeholders.
In the Yearbook’s foreword, High-Level Champions Mahmoud Mohieldin (Egypt) and Razan Al Mubarak (United Arab Emirates) jointly called for a step-up of climate action this decade.
“Effective implementation – in the context of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals – is our common goal that needs to be pursued under the guiding principle of climate justice. The global stocktake is our opportunity to forge ahead, together,” they wrote.
Global stocktake
Other key advances outlined in the 2023 edition of the Yearbook include increased support to cities that are adapting to the impacts of climate change, more finance mobilized for marginalized groups such as Indigenous Peoples, the publication of a handbook to help non-Party stakeholders align their policies with net-zero goals, and the launch of a report that explains how to unlock climate financing in Africa.
The 2023 Yearbook also has a strong focus on the conclusion of the first global stocktake at COP28, which got underway in Dubai today.
The global stocktake is a process for countries and stakeholders to see where they’re collectively making progress towards meeting the goals of the Paris Climate Change Agreement – and where they’re not. Governments will take a decision on the global stocktake at COP28, which can be leveraged to accelerate ambition in their next round of climate action plans due in 2025.
When adopting the Paris Agreement in 2015, Parties also welcomed the efforts of non-Party stakeholders to address climate change and appointed two High-Level Champions to scale up initiatives and actions and strengthen collaboration.
The Marrakech Partnership, under the leadership of the High-Level Champions, has been enabling collaboration between governments and cities, regions, businesses and investors acting on climate change.
Download the Yearbook of Global Climate Action 2023 here.
