Shifting subsidies from fossil fuels to a just energy transition.This report is a clarion call to massively fast-track climate efforts by every country and every sector and on every timeframe. Ending all international public and private funding of coal. Ensuring net-zero electricity generation by 2035 for all developed countries and 2040 for the rest of the world. This can be done. Some have already set a target as early as 2035. At the same time, we need to seize the opportunity to invest in credible innovations that can contribute to reaching our global targets. We must also speed-up efforts to deliver climate justice to those on the frontlines of many crises — none of them they caused. Ceasing all licensing or funding of new oil and gas — consistent with the findings of the International Energy Agency. Concentrations of carbon dioxide are at their highest in at least 2 million years. These plans must clearly detail actual emission cuts for 2025 and 2030, and efforts to change business models to phase out fossil fuels and scale up renewable energy. These new climate plans must reflect the acceleration we need now, over this decade and the next. Once again, I thank the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for showing the fact-based, science-grounded way out of the climate mess. In less than nine months, leaders will gather at COP28 [the United Nations Climate Change Conference] for the first global stocktake of the Paris Agreement. This is the moment for all G20 members to come together in a joint effort, pooling their resources and scientific capacities as well as their proven and affordable technologies through the public and private sectors to make carbon neutrality a reality by 2050. The longer we wait on any of these crucial issues, the harder it will become. And all Governments need the assurance that business leaders will help them deliver on extra efforts — but Governments must also create an enabling policy and regulatory environment. Implementing the new loss and damage fund this year. I urge all Governments to prepare energy transition plans consistent with these actions and ready for investors. Promoting reforms to ensure multilateral development banks provide more grants and concessional loans and fully mobilize private finance. Specifically: No new coal, the phasing out of coal by 2030 in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, and 2040 in all other countries. It starts with parties immediately hitting the fast-forward button on their net-zero deadlines to get to global net-zero by 2050, in line with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in light of different national circumstances. Every country must be part of the solution. Demanding others move first only ensures humanity comes last. I look forward to welcoming “first movers” on the Acceleration Agenda at the Climate Ambition Summit in September in New York. The Acceleration Agenda calls for a number of other actions. The rate of temperature rise in the last half century is the highest in 2,000 years. As today’s report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) details, humans are responsible for virtually all global heating over the last 200 years. I am also calling on CEOs of all oil and gas companies to be part of the solution. They should present credible, comprehensive and detailed transition plans in line with the recommendations of my High-Level Expert Group on net-zero pledges. Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message for the press conference to launch the Synthesis Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, today: Today, I am presenting a plan to super-charge efforts to achieve this Climate Solidarity Pact through an all-hands-on-deck Acceleration Agenda. By the end of COP28, I count on all G20 leaders to have committed to ambitious new economy-wide nationally determined contributions encompassing all greenhouse gases and indicating their absolute emissions cuts targets for 2035 and 2040. In short, our world needs climate action on all fronts — everything, everywhere, all at once. Delivering on the financial commitments made in Copenhagen, Paris and Glasgow. Dear friends, humanity is on thin ice — and that ice is melting fast. Specifically, leaders of developed countries must commit to reaching net-zero as close as possible to 2040, the limit they should all aim to respect. It is a survival guide for humanity. As it shows, the 1.5°C limit is achievable. But it will take a quantum leap in climate action. We have never been better equipped to solve the climate challenge, but we must move into warp speed climate action now. We don’t have a moment to lose. Replenishing the Green Climate Fund this year and developing a road map to double adaptation finance before 2025. The climate time-bomb is ticking. Leaders in emerging economies must commit to reaching net-zero as close as possible to 2050 — again, the limit they should all aim to respect. Protecting everyone with early warning systems against natural disasters in four years. Stopping any expansion of existing oil and gas reserves. The transition must cover the entire economy. Partial pledges won’t cut it. A number have already made the 2050 commitment. Shipping, aviation, steel, cement, aluminium, agriculture — every sector must be aligned with net-zero by 2050, with clear plans including interim targets to get there. But today’s IPCC report is a how-to guide to defuse the climate time-bomb. This acceleration has already started in some sectors, but investors now need crystal clear signals. We can do this by: Safeguarding the most vulnerable communities and scaling up finance and capacities for adaptation and loss and damage. I have proposed to the Group of 20 [G20] a Climate Solidarity Pact, in which all big emitters make extra efforts to cut emissions and wealthier countries mobilize financial and technical resources to support emerging economies in a common effort to keep [the goal of] 1.5°C alive. Establishing a global phase down of existing oil and gas production, compatible with the 2050 global net-zero target. They will also launch the process to prepare the next cycle of national climate plans — or nationally determined contributions — due in 2025.
Secretary-General Calls on States to Tackle Climate Change ‘Time Bomb’ through New Solidarity Pact, Acceleration Agenda, at Launch of Intergovernmental Panel Report
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