By TIOL News Service

NEW YORK, SEPT 11, 2018: THE Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr António Guterres, yesterday sounded the clarion call urging all nations to unite in a crusade to save the planet earth before the advancing climate change rendered the planet beyond saving. He stated that climate change is an existential threat and that it was advancing faster than the efforts being made to contain it. He further warned that if mankind did not change course by 2020, it would risk missing the point where it could avoid runaway climate change, with disastrous consequences for people and all the natural systems that sustain them.

Thus he appealed to politicians, business and scientists and to the public everywhere. Mr Guterres stated that humans had the tools to make their actions effective. However he mentioned there to be a lack of leadership and ambition to do what is necessary, even after the Paris Agreement. He also attempted to highlight the severity of the problem when he drew attention to the record-breaking temperatures all around the world. According to the World Meteorological Organization, the past two decades included 18 of the warmest years since 1850, when records began, he added. Hence this year shaped up to be the fourth hottest, he mentioned.

Mr Guterres also drew attention to how extreme heatwaves, wildfires, storms and floods were leaving a trail of death and devastation. Last month the state of Kerala in India suffered its worst monsoon flooding in recent history, killing 400 people and driving 1 million more from their homes. He also mentioned how Hurricane Maria killed almost 3,000 people in Puerto Rico last year, making it one of the deadliest extreme weather disasters in United States history. Many of those people died in the months after the storm because they lacked access to electricity, clean water and proper health care due to the hurricane.

What makes all of this even more disturbing is that mankind was warned, he added and that scientists have been giving warnings for decades. Far too many leaders refused to listen. Far too few have acted with the vision the science demands. The results are for all to see, he mentioned, and then drew attention to how in some situations, they are approaching scientists in worst case scenarios.  

He also mentioned how the Arctic sea ice is disappearing faster than imagined. This year, for the first time, thick permanent sea ice north of Greenland began to break up.  This dramatic warming in the Arctic is affecting weather patterns across the northern hemisphere. Wildfires are lasting longer and spreading further, he added. Some of these blazes were so big that they send soot and ash around the world, blackening glaciers and ice caps and making them melt even faster. Oceans were becoming more acidic, threatening the foundation of the food chains that sustain life. Corals were dying in vast amounts, further depleting vital fisheries.  And, on land, the high level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is making rice crops less nutritious, threatening well-being and food security for billions of people.

Mr Guterres stated that as climate change intensifies, mankind would find it harder to feed ourselves.  Extinction rates would spike as vital habitats decline. More and more people would be forced to migrate from their homes as the land they depend on becomes less able to support them. This is already leading to many local conflicts over dwindling resources. In May this year, the World Meteorological Organization reported that the planet marked another grim milestone:  the highest monthly average for carbon dioxide levels ever recorded.  Four hundred parts per million has long been seen as a critical threshold.  But we have now surpassed 411 parts per million and the concentrations continue to rise.  This is the highest concentration in 3 million years.

He mentioned that humans knew what is happening to the planet and that mankind also knew that what is needed to be done and also how it is to be done. But sadly, the ambition of action is nowhere near where it needs to be. When world leaders signed the Paris Agreement on climate change three years ago, they pledged to stop temperatures rising by less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to work to keep the increase as close as possible to 1.5°C.  These targets were really the bare minimum to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.  But scientists tell us that we are far off track. According to a United Nations study, the commitments made so far by parties to the Paris Agreement represent just one third of what is needed.

The mountain in front of us is very high. But it is not insurmountable. We know how to scale it.  Put simply, we need to put the brake on deadly greenhouse gas emissions and drive climate action.  We need to rapidly shift away from our dependence on fossil fuels. We need to replace them with clean energy from water, wind and sun.  We must halt deforestation, restore degraded forests and change the way we farm.  We need to embrace the circular economy and resource efficiency.

He mentioned that cities and transport sectors would need to be overhauled. How humans heat, cool and light buildings would need to be re-thought so we waste less energy. And this is exactly where this conversation can become exciting. Because, so much of the conversation on climate change focuses on the doom and gloom. Of course, warnings are necessary. But fear would not get the job done. No, what captures my imagination is the vast opportunity afforded by climate action. Enormous benefits await humankind if humans could rise to the climate challenge. A great many of these benefits are economic.

He also trashed arguments, which he mentioned was from from vested interests, that tackling climate change is expensive and could harm economic growth. In fact, the opposite is true. He mentioned that humans were experiencing huge economic losses due to climate change.  Over the past decade, extreme weather and the health impact of burning fossil fuels have cost the American economy at least USD 240 billion a year. This cost would explode by 50% in the coming decade alone.  By 2030, the loss of productivity caused by a hotter world could cost the global economy USD 2 trillion.

More and more studies also show the enormous benefits of climate action. At the launch of the New [Climate] Economy report from the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate Change, it shows that that climate action and socioeconomic progress are mutually supportive, with gains of USD 26 trillion predicted by 2030 compared with business as usual. That was if humans pursue the right path. For example, for every dollar spent restoring degraded forests, as much as USD 30 can be recouped in economic benefits and poverty reduction.  Restoring degraded lands means better lives and income for farmers and pastoralists and less pressure to migrate to cities. Climate resilient water supply and sanitation could save the lives of more than 360,000 infants every year.  And clean air has vast benefits for public health.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) reports that common sense green economy policies could create 24 million new jobs globally by 2030.  In China and the United States, new renewable energy jobs now outstrip those created in the oil and gas industries.  And, in Bangladesh the installation of more than 4 million solar home systems has created more than 115,000 jobs and saved rural households over USD 400 million in polluting fuels.