According to the UN chief, humans are as deadly to the earth as the meteorite that led to extinction of dinosaurs. He urged that fossil fuel ads come to an end after 12 successive hottest months on record.
Dramatic climate changes are already causing havoc in many parts of the world, resulting into extreme weather conditions like heavy rains and droughts or rising sea level and melting glaciers.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres called for a ban on oil, gas and coal advertisement which is the main driver to be global warming with new findings from climate monitors around the globe indicating that things are not okay.
“The meteor will not kill us. No! It is we who will kill ourselves. We aren’t only at risk but we are a threat,” Gutteres said.
In May, EU climate monitor Copernicus declared it was the hottest month on record making it twelve consecutive months of record-breaking temperatures.
This refers to period before greenhouse gases began warming up our planet, meaning since June 2023 through May 2024; there has been a global average temperature increase by 1.63 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
For further increase in temperatures, Copernicus had previously indicated that El Nino had contributed having made 2023 hottest year by surpassing preindustrial levels by 1.48C
El Nino is weakening but the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned yesterday that Earth has an eighty percent change of experiencing temporary warming exceeding 1.5 degrees during any one period in next five years.
The WMO cautioned however that humanity is playing chicken with climate targets set under the Paris Agreement of 2015 aiming at keeping global temperature rise below 1.5C
WMO noted that chance of temporarily going beyond this threshold has been growing consistently since COP21 which estimated a near zero probability back then.
“Global emissions need to fall nine per cent every year till 2030 to keep the 1.5 degree limit alive,” Gutteres said.
However, instead of measuring years individually, the peak is assessed over decades.
Even though emissions should be phased out during upcoming COP28 talks in Dubai, a decline is not expected.
“The world’s biggest polluters – the fossil fuel industry – are making record profits and feasting on trillions of dollars in publicly-funded subsidies.” Guterres said.
He also requested that every country bans advertising from fossil-fuel companies and compared this with bans on tobacco adverts for health reasons.
“We need an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell” he added as countries that signed up for Paris Climate Accord are set to announce new emission targets by early 2025.
In addition to this, Guterres insisted that governments impose taxes on their fossil fuel industry profits so as to combat global warming hence pointing towards “solidarity levies on sectors such as shipping, aviation and fossil fuel extraction.”
“Even if we stopped emitting greenhouse gases completely today, we would still have a cost from climate chaos of at least $38 trillion per year by 2050,” he said.
According to UN experts, this is more than what will be required by developing countries (excluding China) between now and 2030 ($2.4tn) for their transition away from fossil fuels and adapting to a warming planet.
With fears that the climate emergency could be “diverted [sic] from by wars and other conflicts,” Guterres said he had to make his speech now.
He also added, “Irrespective of the fact that wars have to stop for our survival, we cannot let them keep us away from what is a global threat of all time for humanity, that is, climate change.”
To date, this is concurrent with vital global climate discussions in Bonn Germany that will lay the foundation for UN Cop29 summit which will take place in Azerbaijan come November.
The discussions must result into a new deal on financial assistance from rich countries to developing ones so as to achieve their own climate targets.
