Guterres: 1.5°C is the ‘non-negotiable red line’
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Guterres urged countries to “follow the science and put people before profits,” calling for a tripling of adaptation funding and credible emissions cuts. “Ministers and negotiators must show leadership, boldness and good faith,” he said, highlighting that 1.5°C remains “the only non-negotiable red line.”
He warned that an agreement must balance concerns about adaptation resources with the need to curb rising emissions. For millions, he said, adaptation means “the difference between replanting or going hungry, between staying on ancestral lands or losing them forever.”
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres (center) reviews documents with colleagues at the United Nations Climate Conference in Brazil.
Regarding fossil fuels, the UN chief called for a “just, orderly and equitable” transition, as agreed at COP28. “There can be no solution if there is not, at the same time, a just transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy,” he said, urging an end to “market distortions that favor fossil fuels” and disinformation “designed to sabotage the transition.”
Just hours after the Secretary-General’s press conference, a fire broke out in a pavilion at the COP30 headquarters in Belém, forcing evacuations and briefly interrupting tense negotiations. Brazilian and UN security teams helped clear the area. The fire was quickly controlled and no injuries were reported. The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
Lula: ‘We must start thinking about how to live without fossil fuels’
At a press conference Wednesday night, President Lula said any roadmap for the energy transition “must be taken seriously.” Brazil introduced the idea of a roadmap, he explained, “because we need to show society that we are serious. We don’t want to impose anything on anyone, nor set deadlines. Each country must decide what it can do within its own time frames and capabilities.”
And he added: “If fossil fuels generate (the majority of greenhouse emissions), we must start thinking about how to live without them and how to build that path. And I say this very comfortably, as the leader of a country that has oil, that extracts five million barrels a day.”
President Lula highlighted the use of ethanol and biodiesel in Brazil and called on oil companies, mining companies and the “super rich” to contribute their part. He urged multilateral banks to stop charging “exorbitant interest rates” to African nations and the poorest countries in Latin America, converting part of those debts into investments.
The President praised public participation at COP30, noting that the ‘People’s March’ on November 15 was “exceptionally beautiful and orderly” and celebrated the record participation of 3,500 indigenous peoples and the “full participation” of women.
UN Newsis reporting from Belém, giving you front-row coverage of everything happening at COP30.