Guterres: G7 is critical for climate action

The G7, made up of Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom, as well as the European Union, meets in the city where the first atomic bomb was dropped in 1945, a place that António Guterres described as a “Global symbol of the tragic consequences when nations fail to work together and abandon multilateralism.”

“Every time I visit her, I am inspired by the courage and resilience of the hibakusha“, he declared, referring to the survivors of that horrible act of war. “The United Nations is with them. We will never stop fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.”

The haves and the have-nots

The UN head said his message to the G7 leaders was clear and simple: “Although the economic outlook is uncertain everywhere, rich countries cannot ignore the fact that more than half the world, the vast majority of countries are suffering from a deep financial crisis“.

Guterres reiterated his view, first expressed on an official visit to Jamaica last week, that the problems facing developing countries have three dimensions: moral, power and practical.

Referring to the “unfair and systemic bias” of the global economic system, the obsolete nature of the global financial architecture and the fact that, even under current rules, developing economies have been let down and undersold, the head of the UN stated that the G7 now has a duty to act.

redistribution of power

He General secretary He declared that the financial system created by the post-WWII Bretton Woods readjustment simply “has not fulfilled its primary function as a global safety net” in the face of the economic crises caused by COVID and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In your opinion, the time has come to fix this system and reform the Security Council from the ONU.

“It is essentially about redistribute power according to the realities of today’s world”.

Guterres added that the G7 cannot remain a bystander: “In our multipolar world, as geopolitical divisions grow, no country, or group of countries, can stand on the sidelines as billions of people struggle with basic food. , water, education, health and employment”.

strayed from the path

Underlining the dangers of missing the pace of climate change, the UN headlined highlighted the specific areas where the world’s richest are critical to successful climate action.

According to current forecasts, humanity is heading for a temperature increase of 2.8 °C by the end of this century, he told reporters, and the next five years are likely to be the hottest on record, according to the latest figures from the UN weather agency.

In his opinion, the G7, with its enormous economic and financial weight, is “essential for climate action”, which is working, “but not enough and we are clearly off track”.

“Our Acceleration Agenda aims to make up for lost time. The plan calls for all countries in the G7 reach net zero emissions as close as possible to 2040and for emerging economies to do so as close as possible to 2050″.

Secretary General António Guterres joins world leaders paying their respects at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial.

Phase out of coal

In addition, the Climate Solidarity Pact urges the G7 to mobilize resources to support less favored economies in accelerating decarbonizationto stay within the 1.5° limit compared to pre-industrial levels.

“This requires faster timelines to phase out fossil fuels and increase renewables. It means put a price on carbonand end fossil fuel subsidies. I call on the G7 to fully phase out coal by 2030,” Guterres said.

Finally, the Secretary General called for climate justice, on behalf of the countries that have contributed the least to the crisis, but are suffering the most. “It is high time that developed countries contribute the 100,000 million dollars annually promised“.

And he also reiterated that the Loss and Damage Fund agreed during COP27 in 2022 “must be put into operation”.