A bombshell climate science report “must sound a death knell” for coal, oil and gas, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday, warning that fossil fuels were destroying the planet.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that the 1.5 degrees Celsius temperature goal of the Paris Agreement would likely be breached around 2030 — a decade earlier than it itself projected just three years ago.
“This report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet,” Mr. Guterres said in a statement.
World leaders, green groups and influencers reacted on Monday to the “terrifying” UN climate science report with a mix of horror and hopefulness as the scale of the emergency dawned on many.
“This moment requires world leaders, the private sector and individuals to act together with urgency and do everything it takes to protect our planet,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
“We cannot delay ambitious climate action any longer,” he added.
U.S. Presidential envoy on climate John Kerry said the IPCC report showed “the climate crisis is not only here, it is growing increasingly severe”.
‘It’s not too late’
Frans Timmermans, the European Union’s deputy climate chief said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Working Group 1 report showed “it’s not too late to stem the tide and prevent runaway climate change”.
Britain’s Boris Johnson, whose government is hosting a crucial climate summit in November, said the assessment “makes for sobering reading”.
“I hope today’s IPCC report will be a wake-up call for the world to take action now, before we meet in Glasgow in November for the critical COP26 summit,” he said.
Former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed said the 3,500-page assessment confirmed that climate vulnerable nations were “on the edge of extinction”.
Saleemul Huq, director of Dhaka-based environmental think tank ICCCAD, said the IPCC report was “the final warning that bubble of empty promises is about to burst”.
Climate wunderkind Greta Thunberg said the report was a “solid (but cautious) summary” of the state of the planet. “It doesn’t tell us what to do,” she said on Twitter.
“It is up to us to be brave and take decisions based on the scientific evidence provided in these reports. We can still avoid the worst consequences...”
