Humanity has only two years left ‘to save the world’ by making dramatic changes in the way it discharges heat-trapping emissions, according to the head of the United Nations climate agency, Executive Climate Secretary Simon Stiell, in a speech on 10 April at the Chatham House think tank in London.
It has even less time to act to get the finance needed for such a monumental shift in climate change activity. Governments of the world are facing a 2025 deadline for new and stronger plans to curb carbon pollution, with nearly half of the world's population voting in elections later this year, and crucial global finance meetings taking place later this month in Washington.
“We still have a chance to make greenhouse gas emissions tumble, with a new generation of national climate plans. But we need these stronger plans, now,” said Mr Stiell, He suggested that climate action is not just for powerful people to address – in a clear reference to this year’s electoral calendar.
“Who exactly has two years to save the world? The answer is every person on this planet,” said Mr Stiell. “More and more people want climate action right across societies and political spectrums, in large part because they are feeling the impacts of the climate crisis in their everyday lives and their household budgets.”
Crop-destroying droughts have increased the need for bolder action to curb emissions and help farmers adapt which could boost food security and lessen hunger, he said. “Cutting fossil fuel pollution will mean better health and huge savings for governments and households alike.”
Recent calculations of atmospheric pollution tend to bear out these dire warnings. Levels of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere last year hit all-time highs, according to United States government calculations, while the world's carbon dioxide emissions jumped 1.1 %. 2023 was the hottest year on record by far, say global temperature monitoring groups.
Inequalities
If emissions of carbon dioxide and methane from burning of coal, oil and natural gas continue to rise or do not start a sharp decline, Stiell said it “will further entrench the gross inequaities between the world’s richest and poorest countries and communities" that are being worsened by climate change.
Stiell's speech came just ahead of meetings of The World Bank and other big multinational development institutions. A group of countries, led by Barbados prime minister Mia Mottley and Kenyan president William Ruto will be pushing for major reforms in the systems that loan money to poor nations – especially those hit by climate-related disasters.
In conjunction with that push, Stiell called for “a quantum leap this year in climate finance.” He called for debt relief for the countries that need it the most, saying they are spending $400 billion on debt financing instead of preparing for and preventing future climate change.
He called for more financial aid, not just loans, and more money from different groups like banks, the International Maritime Organisation, and the G20 – the world's 20 most powerful economies. Those countries are responsible for 80 % of the world's heat-trapping emissions, he said.
Mr Stiell’s analysis “absolutely right” in that timing and finance are the heart of the matter, said longtime climate analyst Alden Meyer of European think tank E3G. The carbon action plans submitted by next year will “determine whether we can get on the trajectory of sharp emissions reductions needed to avoid much worse climate impacts than those we are already suffering today,” he said.
