UN Secretary-General Urges "Emergency Mode" for Climate Disaster Response... Indirectly Suggests Insufficient Agreement

▲Ant?nio Guterres, UN Secretary-General [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Ant?nio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, stated on the 13th (local time), "We are still knocking on the door of climate disaster."

On this day, Secretary-General Guterres made the remark in a statement immediately after the adoption of the 'Glasgow Climate Pact' at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) held in Glasgow, UK, saying, "Our fragile planet (Earth) is hanging by a thread."

Despite the adoption of the climate pact, Guterres’ statement highlighting the climate crisis is interpreted as an indirect expression that the agreement’s contents are insufficient.

At COP26, participating countries agreed to phase down coal power and to review their national greenhouse gas reduction targets next year to limit the global temperature rise to within 1.5 degrees Celsius, but the overall assessment is that it falls short of expectations.

In particular, there has been much criticism over the change of the phrase from 'phase out' to 'phase down' coal power due to resistance from countries such as India and China.

In his statement, Secretary-General Guterres described the agreed wording as a "compromise," evaluating that "it reflects the current state of global interests, contradictions, and political will."

He pointed out, "The participating countries have taken an important step," but "unfortunately, the collective political will was not sufficient to overcome deep contradictions."

Guterres warned, "It is time to enter emergency mode," adding, "Otherwise, the probability of reaching carbon neutrality will become 'zero.'"

Regarding the revision of the coal-related wording, he reiterated, "Coal must be phased out and carbon must be priced."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.