NEW YORK, Sept 9 — United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday urged the Group of 20 top economic powers, which are responsible for more than 80 per cent of the emissions that cause global warming, to use their weekend summit to send a strong message on climate change.
Guterres said all licensing or funding for new fossil fuel projects should be stopped and that the G20 must keep the ‘1.5-degree goal alive,’ the Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported.
He was referring to the 2015 Paris climate agreement, which established 1.5 degrees Celsius as the global limit for atmospheric warming, with countries pledging to make efforts to prevent such significant long-term warming if possible.
He told reporters at the G20 summit in New Delhi that the gathering’s theme, ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future,’ resonates today not just as an ideal but as an indictment of the times.
“Because if we are indeed one global family — we today resemble a rather dysfunctional one.
“Divisions are growing, tensions are flaring up and trust is eroding — which together raise the spectre of fragmentation, and ultimately, confrontation.”
— Bernama-WAM
