We need you at the forefront of climate action, Guterres tells G20 leaders

If current climate policies do not change, the planet’s temperature will have risen 3ºC With respect to pre-industrial levels by the end of the century, unleashing catastrophes that will devastate economies, we have to limit this increase to 1.5ºC, the UN Secretary said once again this Tuesday, this time at the G20 Summit, which has place in Rio de Janeiro.

In his speech to the leaders of the 20 largest economies in the world, António Guterres insisted on the urgency for countries accelerate the cutting of their carbon emissions in the short term by 9% annually in the current decade.

However, he regretted, the emissions continue to increase instead of moving from fossil fuels to renewable energies, which are currently the cheapest sources of electricity.

“The end of fossil fuels is inevitable. Let’s make sure it doesn’t come too late and that it comes fairly,” he stressed.

Guterres echoed the words of the president of Brazil, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, host of the conclave, recalling that the countries of the G20 are responsible for 80% of emissions.

Failure is not an option

“That’s why we need them at the front [de la acción climática]”, he told the leaders of those economies, and asked them to instruct their ministers and negotiators participating in the COP29 Climate Summit taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan, to agree on a new financing goal for climate action.

“Failure is not an option (…) The success of COP29 is in your hands, I call for a sense of responsibility of all the countries present at this table to ensure that the meeting is a success,” concluded the Secretary General.

The leaders responded by instructing their representatives at COP29 not to return from Baku without reaching a good agreement on a new climate finance target.

Tense talks in Baku

Meanwhile in Baku, the head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Simon Stiell, said that success at COP29 will benefit all countries.

The tense ones Closed-door talks continue in the gigantic sports complex of the Azerbaijani capital, headquarters of the 29th Conference of the Parties to said Convention.

Although progress has slowed in recent daysthe parties are working to agree on a new target that provides countries with the means to implement effective climate measures and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Stiell stressed the need for countries improve their national climate plansin line with G20 leaders’ call for a rapid transition to a clean energy and climate-resilient global economy.

In this sense, he urged the G20 delegations to act decisively: “The G20 delegations already have their marching orders here in Baku, where we need all nations to put aside posturing and move quickly towards common ground on all issues.”

Some civil society actors are cautiously optimistic, while others are concerned about the Vague language and minimal mention of fossil fuels in the statement.

Global institutions are not up to the task

In Rio de Janeiro, in addition to the climate issue, the UN chief’s agenda included a session on reform to the governance of global institutions, in which the trust deficit stood out in those entities.

“Poverty, inequalities and the climate crisis are worsening and peace is further out of reach. Need global solutions based on UN Charterbut our institutions are not up to the task,” António Guterres stated before the G20 heads of state.

He Security Council It is the first institution that constantly loses its efficiency and legitimacybeing unable to stop the terrible wars in which innocent people pay a terrible price, he noted.

“The reform of the Security Council must be carried out with determination and not become a mirage”, he stressed, and affirmed that achieving peace requires actions based on the values ​​of the UN Charter, the rule of law and the principles of sovereignty, political independence and territorial integrity of States.

Obsolete and unfair financial architecture

With respect to global financial institutions, Guterres noted that as the largest economies in the world, the G20 countries establish the rules that dominate their boards.

At this point, he added, the world expects them to act in accordance with the commitments of the Future Pact to accelerate the reform of the international financial architecture “which has become obsolete and unfair.”

The financial architecture must be reformed so that be representative of today’s world and not the one from many decades ago.

To give developing countries fair representation in the governance of international financial institutions, to protect economies – particularly vulnerable ones – from global shocks, and to mobilize large-scale financing and closing the Sustainable Development Goals financing gap, which includes substantially increasing the capital and lending capacity of multilateral development banks, making them bigger and bolder, Guterres detailed.

Furthermore, he added, this new architecture must ensure that the debt relief works in a timely and effective manner for those countries that are drowning in paying it.

We also need build a more inclusive and equitable international tax systemhe added, and alluded to the conference on Development Financing, scheduled in July in Spain, as an opportunity to deepen these reforms.

Artificial intelligence

The Secretary General’s speech covered the artificial intelligence, a new technology whose governance “requires the creation of a Scientific Panel Independent International, as well as a global dialogue within the UN.”

Guterres argued that the development of artificial intelligence capabilities in non-industrialized countries requires defining options for financing next year.

“I urge the G20 countries to lead, and once again, I repeat, many of these decisions are exclusively in the hands of the G20 countries and its presence in the governance bodies of most of our institutions,” he emphasized.

Guterres acknowledged reforms will be especially difficult in the Security Council“But we must persist,” he said.

“And we must ensure that we support the necessary reforms of global governance because they are absolutely essential to rebuilding trust in the world current”, concluded the Secretary General.