UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) latest report shows “irrefutable” evidence of the immediate risk climate change poses to humanity.
The report, which is the sixth assessment from IPCC (the first having been issued in 1990), lays out the most up-to-date physical understanding of the climate system and climate change, bringing together the latest advances in climate science, and combining input from 234 scientists across the world.
“The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse‑gas emissions from fossil-fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk,” Mr Guterres said in a response issued on Monday.
“Global heating is affecting every region on Earth, with many of the changes becoming irreversible.”
Mr Guterres called on leaders not just in government, but also in business and civil society, to unite behind policies and actions that will limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees.
“We owe this to the entire human family, especially the poorest and most vulnerable communities and nations that are the hardest hit despite being least responsible for today’s climate emergency,” Mr Guterres said.
The Paris Agreement, the international treaty on climate change that was signed by 196 parties including Australia at COP 21 in 2015, sets the goal of limiting global warming to below 2.0 degrees, preferably 1.5 degrees, compared with pre-industrial levels.
In its recent report, IPCC estimated the world will have warmed by 1.5 degrees by mid-2034.
Mr Guterres called on the 38 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) particularly to take action.
“This report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet. There must be no new coal plants built after 2021. OECD countries must phase out existing coal by 2030, with all others following suit by 2040,” he said.
Analysis from the Australia Institute’s Climate & Energy Program released this week indicates that Australia’s clean energy policy is lagging significantly behind other OECD countries with a comparable wealth, population, and development.
Looking at Australia’s overall energy transition performance against 22 other similar OECD economies and Russia, the report, authored by energy analyst Dr Hugh Saddler, placed Australia at the back of the pack.
“The Australian economy has, with the exception of Poland, the most emissions intensive energy system among OECD countries,” Mr Saddler said in his report.
“It is arguable that, based on the combination of the level of the non-fossil fuel share and the increase in that share from 2005 to 2019, Australia has performed worse than any of the other 23 countries at reducing its dependence on fossil fuel generation,” Mr Saddler said.
Mr Guterres urged business leaders to act on the findings in IPCC’s latest assessment, noting that the climate crisis poses enormous financial risk to corporations, investment managers and asset owners.
“I am asking corporate leaders to support a minimum international carbon price and align their portfolios with the Paris Agreement. The public and private sector must work together to ensure a just and rapid transformation to a net-zero global economy,” Mr Guterres said.
