Guterres urges to “fight harder” against global warming after “experiencing the hottest decade on record”

The UN secretary is confident, however, that the worst of the climate catastrophe can still be “avoided”

Jan. 11 () –

The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, has alerted the international community this Friday about the “cold and harsh” reality of climate change after experiencing the decade with the highest temperatures since records have been recorded and has warned that 2024 will be probably the warmest year “above the pre-industrial level.”

“We have just lived through the hottest decade on record: 2024 tops the list and will likely be the first calendar year with a global average temperature above pre-industrial levels by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius,” lamented the UN representative, urging to “fight even harder to get back on track” toward the Paris Agreement’s still-achievable long-term climate goals.

Guterres has stressed that the high temperatures recorded last year “will require pioneering climate action in 2025”, although he has been optimistic by stating that “there is still time to avoid the worst of the climate catastrophe.” “But leaders must act now,” he added.

Specifically, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has confirmed that the last ten years have been among the ten warmest, “in an extraordinary streak of record temperatures” that has raised the global average surface temperature 1.55 degrees above of the average for the period between 1850 and 1900, which would have made 2024 “the warmest year on record.”

“Climate history is unfolding before our eyes. We have not had one or two record years, but a whole series of ten years. This has been accompanied by devastating and extreme weather events, rising sea levels and melting ice, all of it driven by record levels of greenhouse gases due to human activities,” explained WMO Secretary General Celeste Saulo.

Saulo agrees with the secretary in pointing out that an increase of these characteristics for one year is not a failure with respect to the Paris objectives, but he has stressed that “it is essential to recognize that every fraction of a degree of warming matters” as it “increases the impacts.” in our lives, economies and our planet.

“Governments must present new national climate action plans this year to limit the long-term global temperature rise to 1.5°C and support the most vulnerable to cope with devastating climate impacts,” Guterres added. this regard.