{"id":154456,"date":"2025-10-31T02:18:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T02:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/154456\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T02:18:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T02:18:20","slug":"world-faces-devastating-consequences-after-missing-1-5-degrees-climate-target-says-un-head-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/154456\/","title":{"rendered":"World faces \u2018devastating consequences\u2019 after missing 1.5 degrees climate target, says UN head \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Humanity has failed to limit global heating<\/a> to 1.5 degrees and must change course immediately, the secretary general of the UN<\/a> has warned.<\/p>\n

In his only interview before next month\u2019s Cop30 climate summit, Ant\u00f3nio Guterres<\/a> acknowledged it is now \u201cinevitable\u201d that humanity will overshoot the target in the Paris climate agreement, with \u201cdevastating consequences\u201d for the world.<\/p>\n

He urged the leaders who will gather in the Brazilian rainforest city of Bel\u00e9m to realise that the longer they delay cutting emissions, the greater the danger of passing catastrophic \u201ctipping points\u201d in the Amazon, the Arctic and the oceans.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s recognise our failure,\u201d he told the Guardian and Amazon-based news organisation Suma\u00fama. \u201cThe truth is that we have failed to avoid an overshooting above 1.5C in the next few years. And that going above 1.5C has devastating consequences. Some of these devastating consequences are tipping points, be it in the Amazon, be it in Greenland, or western Antarctica or the coral reefs.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the priority at Cop30 was to shift direction: \u201cIt is absolutely indispensable to change course in order to make sure that the overshoot is as short as possible and as low in intensity as possible to avoid tipping points like the Amazon. We don\u2019t want to see the Amazon as a savannah. But that is a real risk if we don\u2019t change course and if we don\u2019t make a dramatic decrease of emissions as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The planet\u2019s past 10 years have been the hottest in recorded history. Despite growing scientific alarm at the speed of global temperature increases caused by the burning of fossil fuels \u2013 oil, coal and gas \u2013 the secretary general said government commitments have come up short.<\/p>\n

Fewer than a third of the world\u2019s nations (62 out of 197) have sent in their climate action plans, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs) under the Paris agreement. The US under Donald Trump has abandoned the process. Europe has promised but so far failed to deliver. China, the world\u2019s biggest emitter, has been accused of undercommitting.<\/p>\n

Mr Guterres said the lack of NDC ambition means the Paris goal of 1.5 degrees will be breached, at least temporarily: \u201cFrom those [NDCs] received until now, there is an expectation of a reduction of emissions of 10 per cent. We would need 60 per cent [to stay within 1.5 degrees]. So overshooting is now inevitable.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did not give up on the target though, and said it may still be possible to temporarily overshoot and then bring temperatures down in time to return to 1.5 degrees by the end of the century, but this would require a change of direction at and beyond Cop30.<\/p>\n

He called for governments to rebalance representation at Cops so that civil society groups, particularly from indigenous communities, will have a greater presence and influence than people paid by corporations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know what the lobbyists want,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s to increase their profits, with the price being paid by humankind.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said a transition away from fossil fuels was a matter of economic self-interest, because it was clear that the era of fossil fuels was coming to an end: \u201cWe are seeing a renewables revolution and the transition will inevitably accelerate and there will be no way in which humankind will be able to use all the oil and gas already discovered,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Asked if he had raised this with the Brazilian president, Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, whose government has just given the green light for oil exploration near the mouth of the Amazon, he said: \u201cNot yet. I\u2019ll take advantage of the Cop [to do this].\u201d<\/p>\n

One of Brazil\u2019s initiatives at Cop30 will be the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, which aims to raise $125bn for the protection of standing forests. A fifth of any money disbursed will go directly to indigenous communities, whose territories contain most of the best-preserved biodiversity and most effective carbon sinks.<\/p>\n

On several occasions, Mr Guterres stressed the essential importance of indigenous voices at Cop30. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is fundamental to invest in those who are the best guardians of nature. And the best guardians of nature are precisely the indigenous communities,\u201d Mr Guterres said.<\/p>\n

World leaders should also be schooled by indigenous peoples in how to achieve a balance with nature, the secretary general said. \u201cPolitical leaders are often more concerned with the day-to-day problems of society, especially at times when the economic situation is complex and aggravated by climate change, by disasters, by catastrophes,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Despite growing pressure on the Cop system of global environmental governance, Mr Guterres said it played a crucial role.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe alternative is a free-for-all,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we know what free for all means. Free for all means that there will be a small privileged elite, people and companies that will be able to always protect themselves, even if disasters will spread. Floods will spread, communities will be destroyed, but there will always be a group of rich people and rich companies that will be able to protect themselves as the planet is being progressively destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next year will be Mr Guterres\u2019s last as secretary general. Looking back on his nine years in the post, he said he wished he had focused on climate and nature earlier, though it was now a priority. <\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI will never give up on my commitment to climate action, on my commitment to biodiversity, on my commitment to the protection of nature, on my commitment to help and support all the democratic movements that around the world are fighting and fighting hard to preserve the most precious possession that we have, which is our mother nature.\u201d \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Humanity has failed to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees and must change course immediately, the secretary general…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[269],"tags":[90278,442,51061,18,440,19,17,133,2863],"class_list":{"0":"post-154456","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-antonio-guterres","9":"tag-climate-change","10":"tag-climate-sustainability","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-environment","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-united-nations-un"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115466384885701524","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}