Guterres urges drastic emissions cuts at final climate summit

COP31 electrification goal splits delegates on fossil fuel use

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Friday that the world must immediately and drastically cut fossil fuel emissions to avert the most catastrophic effects of climate change, using his final climate summit to urge countries to “follow the science” and face hard facts.

“You cannot build peace on a burning planet,” Guterres told reporters, stressing that climate change is central to the U.N.’s work because it contributes to geopolitical instability by driving hunger and displacement, pushing countries into debt and fueling competition for land and water.

Guterres made the same point about poverty, opportunity and fairness: “You cannot eradicate poverty when climate disasters keep throwing people back into it,” he said. “You cannot promise young people a better future while destroying the natural systems on which that future depends. And you cannot speak seriously about justice when those who did least to cause this crisis suffer first and worst.”

World leaders meeting in Antalya, Turkey, for the annual U.N. climate talks are trying to reach consensus on concrete actions to address climate change, which is fueling more intense and deadly heat waves, droughts, floods and other disasters, and to help countries at greatest risk, including island nations losing land to rising seas.

Achieving emissions reductions is setting up a point of contention at the talks, especially around electrification. A goal introduced this year would increase the share of electricity in total global energy consumption from roughly 21% to 35% by 2035, preferably from renewable energy such as solar and wind. But the goal does not require that electricity be generated by renewable sources — something Guterres said is essential — meaning coal and other fossil fuels could be used, at least initially.

Climate TRACE, which tracks global emissions via satellites, found that prioritizing clean energy would cut global emissions 14%, compared with 7% if fossil fuels also are used for electrification.

International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol said it is more important that as many countries as possible sign on to the pledge, which works best without a clean energy requirement. Environmental groups say electrification will only have a real impact if fossil fuels are omitted. “Electrification must end fossil fuel dependence, not be an end in itself,” said Jasmin Duregger, from Greenpeace’s Global Gas Campaign.

Leaders from countries ravaged by climate change — mostly poorer, vulnerable countries that contributed little to the problem — also are calling for more money to deal with climate disasters and adapt to a warming world. Leaders of small island nations, who say rising seas are engulfing their lands and that climate change is a life-or-death matter for their people, have been the most vocal at this year’s summit, COP31, saying a U.N. fund created for compensating vulnerable nations must be urgently strengthened.

Guterres said wealthier countries that have contributed most to climate change “must deliver the finance they have promised” at past summits — but also contribute much more. “Let us be clear about the scale of the gap,” he said. “Even tripling adaptation finance would meet less than 30 percent of what is needed.” Progress is difficult without the cooperation of all nations, “particularly the biggest emitters,” Guterres said.

A report released Thursday by the independent Climate Action Tracker found that progress in slowing global warming has essentially stalled for the past five years. That means the world is sure to overshoot the goal set in the 2015 Paris Agreement of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial temperatures.

Climate change is caused primarily by greenhouse gases emitted by burning gas, oil and coal, and countries have established plans to reduce those emissions. But even if they fulfill all their promises — a big if — the globe will end the century 2.6 degrees Celsius (4.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial times, the report said.

“Our responsibility is to keep it as small as possible, for as short a time as possible and bring temperatures back below 1.5 degrees as quickly as we can,” Guterres said, proposing cuts of about 6% per year for several years and calling the overshoot “a recipe for catastrophe.”

Some of the top-polluting countries stayed away from this year’s summit, most notably the United States — the world’s second-largest polluter after China and the largest historical polluter. It is the second year in a row the U.S. skipped the summit, after President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from climate negotiations.

“Facts are facts,” Guterres said. “No country can protect itself from climate change alone. We share one planet, and whether we like it or not, we share one fate.”

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