“We must choose between the path of surrender and the path of hope and climate action. Cop 25 is our opportunity.” The speech by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres at the climate conference in Madrid, translated into English.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has no doubts: Cop 25 in Madrid is the opportunity — perhaps the last — to make decisions for concrete action and avoid crossing the point of no return we are inexorably approaching. In his opening speech at the conference, he did not mince his words. His full speech, translated into English.
I thank the governments of Chile and Spain for collaborating in a spirit of inclusive multilateralism to make this Cop 25 possible, and I congratulate them on the impeccable organisation achieved in such a short time. This solidarity and flexibility are precisely what we need in the race to overcome the climate emergency. We are at a critical moment in our collective efforts to limit dangerous global warming. By the end of the next decade we will be on one of two paths: one is the path of surrender, on which we have sleepwalked past the point of no return, putting the health and safety of everyone on this planet at risk. Do we really want to go down in history as the generation that buried its head in the sand, that procrastinated while the planet burned? The other is the path of hope. A path of determination, of sustainable solutions. A path on which all fossil fuels remain where they should be — underground — and on which we will be well on our way to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. This is the only way to limit the rise in global temperature beyond 1.5 degrees by the end of this century. The best science available to us today — the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Ipcc) — tells us that going beyond these levels would lead to catastrophic disaster. Millions of people around the world, and young people in particular, are calling on leaders from all sectors to do more — much more — to address the climate emergency we face. They know that we must take the right path today, not tomorrow. This means that important decisions must be taken now. And Cop 25 is our opportunity.
Read also: Cop 25 in Madrid, live updates
Before focusing on what we must do in this session, I would like to take a step back to put our decisions in perspective. Recently published data from the World Meteorological Organization (Wmo) show that greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere have reached a new record. Global mean carbon dioxide levels reached 407.8 parts per million in 2018. And I recall that, not so long ago, 400 parts per million was seen as an unthinkable point of no return. We have gone well beyond that. The last time a similar concentration of CO2 occurred was between 3 and 5 million years ago, when the temperature was between 2 and 3 degrees higher than it is now and sea levels were 10 to 20 metres higher than today.
The signals are unequivocal. The last five years have been the hottest ever recorded. The consequences are already being felt in the form of more extreme weather events and disasters, from hurricanes to droughts, from floods to wildfires. The polar ice caps are melting. In Greenland alone, 179 billion tonnes of ice melted in July. Permafrost in the Arctic is thawing 70 years ahead of projections. Antarctica is melting three times faster than a decade ago.
Ocean levels are rising faster than expected, putting some of our largest and most economically important cities at risk. More than two thirds of the world's megacities lie on the coast. And as the oceans rise, they are also being poisoned. The oceans absorb more than a quarter of all CO2 in the atmosphere and generate more than half of our oxygen. Absorbing ever more carbon dioxide acidifies the oceans and threatens all life within them. Three major Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports — on land, on the oceans and cryosphere, and on the 1.5-degree climate target — each confirm that we are knowingly destroying the life-support systems that keep us alive. And it is true: we are doing this.
Read also: There is less and less oxygen in the oceans, and that is a problem
In various regions of the world, coal-fired power plants continue to be planned and built in large numbers. Either we stop this dependence on coal, or all our efforts to fight climate change will be doomed to fail. And, as the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) has just revealed, over the next ten years countries will produce fossil fuels at levels more than double what would be consistent with keeping temperature rises to 1.5 degrees. And the fossil fuel industry is not alone.
From agriculture to transport, from urban planning and construction to cement, steel and other carbon-intensive industries, we are far from achieving a sustainable path. Some efforts towards sustainable business models can be glimpsed, but none is anywhere near the scale required. What we need is not a gradual-change approach, but a transformational one. We need rapid and deep change in the way business is done, in how power is generated, in how cities are built, in how we move and in how we feed the planet.
If we do not urgently change the way we live, we put life itself at risk. Over the past year, I have stated that we must make progress on carbon pricing, shift taxation from income to carbon, ensure that no new coal-fired power plants are built after 2020, and put an end to the allocation of taxpayers' money to perverse fossil fuel subsidies.
We must also ensure that the transition to a green economy is a just transition — one that recognises the need to look after the future of negatively affected workers, in terms of new jobs, lifelong learning and social safety nets. If we want change, we must be that change. Choosing the path of hope is not the work of one person, one sector or a single government. We are all in this together. The road map set out by the scientific community is clear.
To limit the rise in global temperature to the necessary 1.5 degrees by the end of this century, we must reduce emissions by 45 per cent compared to 2010 levels by 2030, and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Ten years ago, had countries acted on the scientific knowledge available, they would have needed to reduce emissions by 3.3 per cent each year. That was not done. Today, to meet our targets, we must reduce emissions by 7.6 per cent each year.
Read also: We have until 2030 to act or the climate will spiral out of control
It is therefore essential that governments not only honour their national contributions under the Paris Agreement, but that they substantially increase their ambition. And even if the Paris commitments were fully met, it would not be enough. But unfortunately, many countries are not even doing that. And the results are plain to see. According to the latest Emissions Gap Report (concerning the greenhouse gas emissions gap, released by the United Nations Environment Programme, ed.), greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 1.5 per cent per year over the last decade.
At the current rate, we are looking at global warming of between 3.4 and 3.9 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. The impact on all life on the planet, including our own, will be catastrophic. The only solution is rapid, ambitious and transformative action by everyone: governments, regions, cities, businesses and civil society, working together to achieve a common goal. This was the purpose of the Climate Action Summit I convened in September. And in many respects it was encouraging. Island states, least developed countries, major cities and regional economies, as well as a considerable representation of the private and financial sector, came forward with initiatives.
70 countries announced their intention to submit stronger national contributions in 2020, and 65 countries and major subnational economies committed to zeroing out their net emissions by 2050. I am pleased to see governments and investors moving away from fossil fuels. A recent example is the announcement by the European Investment Bank that it will no longer finance fossil fuel projects by the end of 2021. But we are still waiting for change from most G20 countries, which account for more than three-quarters of global emissions. My new report on the summit sets out what needs to be done going forward. First, all major emitters must do more.
This means strengthening nationally determined commitments in 2020 under the Paris Agreement, submitting a carbon neutrality strategy for 2050, and beginning the decarbonisation of key sectors, in particular energy, industry, construction and transport. Without the full engagement of all the countries that emit the most CO2, any effort will be completely undermined. A green economy is not an opportunity to be feared but to be welcomed, one that can advance our efforts to achieve all the sustainable development goals. But what frustrates me is the slow pace of change, especially since most of the tools and technologies we need are already available. So my call to all of you today is to increase your ambition and urgency.
Read also: 631 investors managing 37 trillion dollars back the Paris Agreement
Dear delegates, we are here at Cop 25 to make progress on key elements, namely achieving the goals set by Article 6 and continuing to strengthen ambition in preparation for new and revised national action plans ahead of next year. Article 6 was the outstanding issue that was not resolved at Cop 24 in Katowice. Putting a price on carbon is fundamental if we are to have any chance of limiting the rise in global temperatures and preventing climate change from spiralling out of control.
Making Article 6 operational will help make markets work, mobilise the private sector and ensure that the rules are the same for everyone. Failure to implement Article 6 risks fragmenting carbon markets and sending a negative message that could undermine our global climate efforts. I urge all parties to overcome their current divisions and find common ground on this issue. The Cop will also advance work on capacity building, deforestation, indigenous peoples, cities, finance, technology, gender and more. And it must complete several technical matters to achieve the full operationalisation of the transparency framework under the Paris Agreement. The tasks are many, our timelines are tight and every element matters. It is essential that we complete our work and we have no time to waste.
But as important as a positive conclusion to the negotiations, Cop 25 must convey to the world a firm determination to change course. We must finally demonstrate that we are serious in our commitment to ending the war against nature, that we have the political will to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
I expect all governments to commit to reviewing, over the coming year, ahead of Cop 26 in Glasgow, their national commitments with the ambition needed to defeat the climate emergency. Ambition in mitigation, ambition in adaptation and ambition in finance.
And let us not forget, we should ensure that at least 100 billion dollars per year are available to developing countries for mitigation and adaptation, and take into account their legitimate expectations of having the resources needed to build resilience and for disaster response and recovery.
Dear delegates, the decisions we make here will ultimately define whether we choose a path of hope or a path of surrender. Remember, we made a commitment to all the citizens of the world through the Paris Agreement. It was a solemn promise.
Let us open our ears to the multitude of people
