UN chief urges G20 leaders to send strong message on climate change

NEW YORK, 8th September, 2023 (WAM) – UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday urged the Group of 20 top economic powers, which are responsible for more than 80% of the emissions that cause global warming, to use their weekend summit to send a strong message on climate change.

Guterres said all licensing or funding for new fossil fuel projects should be stopped and that the G20 must keep the “1.5-degree goal alive,” referring to the 2015 Paris climate agreement that set 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) as a global guardrail in atmospheric warming, with countries pledging to try to prevent that much long-term warming if possible.

Guterres warned that global divisions are growing, risking catastrophic fragmentation and confrontation.

He told reporters at the G20 summit in New Delhi that the gathering’s theme - One Earth, One Family, One Future - resonates today not just as an ideal but as an indictment of the times.

“Because if we are indeed one global family – we today resemble a rather dysfunctional one,” he said. “Divisions are growing, tensions are flaring up and trust is eroding – which together raise the specter of fragmentation, and ultimately, confrontation.”

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