UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued a stark warning at the opening ceremony of the COP29 World Leaders’ Climate Action Summit on Tuesday, highlighting the escalating economic and social consequences of the climate crisis.
“The sound you hear is the ticking clock,” Guterres said, emphasising the urgency of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. “We are in the final countdown … and time is not on our side.”
Guterres pointed to 2024 as a year of record-breaking heat and extreme weather events, from hurricanes to droughts, which he characterised as “a masterclass in climate destruction.”
“Families running for their lives before the next hurricane strikes; biodiversity destroyed in sweltering seas; workers and pilgrims collapsing in insufferable heat; floods tearing through communities, and tearing down infrastructure; children going to bed hungry as droughts ravage crops – all these disasters, and more, are being supercharged by human-made climate change,” Guterres said.
He stressed that no country is spared from the economic impacts of the climate crisis, including supply chain disruptions, rising food prices, and increased insurance premiums.
“This is a story of avoidable injustice,” Guterres said. “The rich cause the problem, the poor pay the highest price.”
Guterres cited a recent Oxfam report finding that the richest billionaires emit more carbon in an hour and a half than the average person does in a lifetime.
Despite the dire situation, Guterres expressed hope, emphasising the commitments made at COP28 to phase out fossil fuels, accelerate net zero energy systems, boost climate adaptation, and align national climate plans with the 1.5 degree limit.
“It’s time to deliver,” he said. “Humanity is behind you: a poll by the University of Oxford and the United Nations Development Programme finds that eighty percent of people around the world want more climate action.”
Guterres urged world leaders to focus on three key priorities:
First, emergency emissions reductions.
Guterres called for a nine percent reduction in global emissions every year, reaching a 43 percent decrease from 2019 levels by 2030. He emphasised the need for rules for fair, effective carbon markets that support this goal, while also protecting the rights of local communities.
He also stressed the importance of new economy-wide national climate action plans that align with the 1.5-degree target, covering all emissions and sectors, and advancing global goals such as tripling renewable energy capacity, doubling energy efficiency, halting deforestation, and slashing fossil fuel production and consumption by 2030.
Second, increased adaptation efforts.
Guterres noted the growing gap between adaptation needs and finance, warning that it could reach US$359 billion annually by 2030. He emphasised the need for developed countries to double adaptation finance to at least $40bn per year by 2025.
“These missing dollars are not abstractions on a balance sheet: they are lives taken, harvests lost, and development denied,” Guterres said.
Third, significant increases in climate finance.
Guterres pointed to the obstacles developing countries face in accessing climate finance, including limited public funds, high costs of capital, and debt burdens.
“The result: adaptation denied. And a tale of two transitions,” he said.
Guterres called for a new finance goal that addresses the needs of developing countries, outlining five key elements: a significant increase in concessional public finance; a clear plan for mobilising trillions of dollars; tapping innovative sources, such as levies on shipping, aviation, and fossil fuel extraction; a framework for greater accessibility, transparency, and accountability; and boosting the lending capacity of Multilateral Development Banks through recapitalization and business model reforms.
“On climate finance, the world must pay up, or humanity will pay the price,” Guterres concluded.
He reminded leaders that climate finance is not charity, but an investment, and that climate action is not optional, but imperative.
“Both are indispensable: to a liveable world for all humanity. And a prosperous future for every nation on Earth,” Guterres said.
The Secretary-General concluded by emphasising the urgency of the situation: “The clock is ticking.”
