United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for a “historic pact” between developed and emerging economies as implementable negotiations get underway at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
Speaking to world leaders at the COP27 summit, Guterres warned: “We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator.” He emphasized that the clock was ticking with the planet fast approaching tipping points that can make “climate chaos” irreversible.
“Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish. It is either a Climate Solidarity Pact – or a Collective Suicide Pact,” the UN Secretary-General told over 100 world leaders at the UN Climate Change Conference.
He said that there is a need for a pact in which all countries would have to make an extra effort to reduce emissions this decade in line with the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal.
The climate vision would require cooperation between the world’s two largest emitters, the U.S. and China. “The two largest economies – the United States and China – have a particular responsibility to join efforts to make this Pact a reality. This is our only hope of meeting our climate goals,” he stressed.
Guterres also asked governments to tax the pandemic-driven windfall profits of fossil fuel companies and redirect the money to people struggling with rising food and energy prices and countries suffering loss and damage caused by the climate crisis.
This year’s COP27 climate summit in Egypt brought together tens of thousands of participants and more than 100 heads of state to discuss efforts to cope with the climate crisis. U.S. President Biden, as well as dozens of other world leaders, are attending the summit.
