World must rapidly shift from dependence on fossil fuels by 2020 to prevent runaway climate change: UN chief Guterres

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that the world is facing "a direct existential threat" and must rapidly shift from dependence on fossil fuels by 2020 to prevent "runaway climate change." In an address at UN headquarters in New York yesterday, 

Guterres called the crisis urgent and decried the lack of global leadership to address global warming. He said, people everywhere are experiencing record-breaking temperatures and extreme heatwaves, wildfires, storms and floods "are leaving a trail of death and devastation."

 

World leaders who signed the Paris agreement on climate change in 2015 committed to a



series of measures to limit global temperature rises to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and as close as possible to 1.5 degrees. But recent studies show the world is off track and likely to miss that target.

The UN chief described the upcoming COP 24 summit in the Polish city of Katowice as a "key moment" when leaders will be asked to "show they care about the people whose fate they hold in their hands."

 

Next year, a major climate summit will be held at the United Nations to take stock of the achievements and failures of the Paris agreement.