Sharm el-Sheikh, November 7 (BNA): With the world on a “highway to climate hell and our feet on the accelerator,” the United Nations Secretary-General on Monday asked dozens of leaders to “cooperate or die” to avoid further climate change. catastrophe.
He wasn’t the only one preaching a tone of fire and sulfur, alternating with pathos and tragedy, trying to shake the world’s sense of urgency at this year’s annual United Nations climate conference. Former US Vice President Al Gore urged “Choose life over death.” It is not time for moral cowardice.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Motley said: “Our people on this earth deserve better. I do not need to repeat the horror and destruction that has befallen this land over the past 12 months since we met in Glasgow.”
“Whether it’s the horrific floods in Pakistan or heat waves from Europe to China or already the last few days in my area, or the devastation caused in Belize by Tropical Storm Lisa or the torrential floods a few days ago in St. Lucia.”
Ahead of this year’s conference, known as COP27, leaders and experts have been ringing alarm bells that time is quickly running out to avoid a catastrophic rise in temperatures.
Over 100 world leaders will speak over the next few days at the gathering in Egypt, most of them from developing countries.
Much of their focus will be on telling their stories of the devastation caused by climate disasters, culminating on Tuesday with a speech by Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Sharif, as summer floods caused at least $40 billion in damage and displaced millions of people.
“Isn’t it time to put an end to all this suffering,” the summit host, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, told fellow leaders. “Climate change will never stop without our intervention…Our time here is limited and we must use every second we have.”
He called for a new agreement between rich and poor nations to make deeper emissions cuts with financial assistance and phase out coal in rich nations by 2030 and elsewhere by 2040.
He called on the United States and China, the two largest economies, to work together privately on climate, something they had been doing until the past few years.
“Humanity has a choice: cooperate or die,” Guterres said. “It’s either a climate solidarity pact – or a collective suicide pact.”
Guterres insisted that “today’s urgent crises cannot be an excuse for retreat or greenwashing.”
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