New York, Sept. 24 (SANA) United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called on countries to develop credible roadmaps and clear timelines for moving away from fossil fuels, warning that urgent action is needed to avert a climate catastrophe.
Speaking during the high-level week of the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, Guterres said the world was demanding climate justice through stronger action on emissions, adaptation and finance.
“We are the first generation with the tools to end the fossil fuel age – and the last with a chance to avert climate catastrophe,” he said, according to UN News.
Clean energy transition
Guterres said global temperatures were expected to temporarily exceed the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold above pre-industrial levels set under the 2015 Paris Agreement, adding that the goal should be to keep any overshoot as small and short-lived as possible.
He described renewable energy as the cheapest, fastest and safest source of new electricity generation in most parts of the world, saying clean energy had become “unstoppable.”
Guterres called for tripling renewable energy capacity, doubling energy efficiency, accelerating electrification, sharply cutting methane emissions and ending deforestation.
He also urged governments to meet growing electricity demand, including from artificial intelligence, by expanding renewable energy, power grids and storage.
“I call on every country to develop a credible roadmap away from fossil fuels, with clear timelines,” he said.
G20 urged to lead
Guterres said the Group of 20, responsible for about 80% of global emissions, should take the lead while ensuring that developing countries can participate in and benefit from the energy transition.
He called for at least $300 billion a year in climate finance for developing countries and for total climate finance to reach $1.3 trillion annually by 2035.
Guterres also urged governments to make polluters pay, provide debt relief following disasters and give developing countries a stronger voice in the international financial system.
“Without adaptation, droughts become hunger crises, storms become debt crises, and heatwaves become death sentences,” he warned.
He stressed that no country could decarbonize the global economy or protect itself from climate disruption on its own.
T.S /ABD
