“(…) we have many priorities at the UN – peace and security, human rights and development – but I would say that this is the absolute priority.”
Guterres recalled that when world leaders signed the Paris Agreement on Climate Change three years ago, they committed to keeping global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to work to keep the increase as close to 1.5 degrees as possible.
These objectives were agreed upon, he noted, as the “bare minimum” to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
“The commitment was universal, but we are nowhere near where we need to be to achieve these minimum goals,” he said, adding that a UN study found that commitments made so far by Parties to the Paris Agreement represent only a third of what is needed.
“We need to do more and we need to do it faster – we need more ambition and accelerated action by 2020.”
Today’s meeting takes place in the midst of what is known as “New York Climate Week” and comes on the heels of the Global Climate Action Summit, held in San Francisco earlier this month.
It also follows a historic speech by the Secretary-General this month in which he warned that the world risks “crossing the point of no return” on climate change and highlighted the need to accelerate action to address this global threat.
To mobilize greater action and funding, the Secretary-General will convene a Climate Summit in September 2019 to “focus on the heart of the problem.”
“Only a significantly higher level of ambition will be enough, and the Summit will be an opportunity for leaders and partners to show their ambition.”
A key moment on the road to next year’s Summit will be the 24thth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – informally known as COP24 – to be held in December in Katowice, Poland.