Tackling the climate crisis is at the heart of all human life and must be at the forefront of global governance, the outgoing UN secretary-general said in an emotional farewell speech at the Cop31 climate summit.
“You cannot build peace on a planet on fire,” António Guterres said Friday during his final climate press conference as secretary-general. “You can’t eradicate poverty when climate disasters keep pushing people back into it. You can’t promise young people a better future while destroying the natural systems on which that future depends.”
Guterres has been the most outspoken secretary general yet on the subject of climate, returning to it again and again to lambast fossil fuel companies and recalcitrant governments.
He leaves office at the end of December and his successor is still unknown after Donald Trump tried to inject his preferred choices into the process. Fears are widespread that the next outgoing president will downplay the climate crisis in favor of other issues.
In a clear message to his successor, Guterres explained why the UN must continue to put climate at the top of the global agenda. “Climate change doesn’t stay in its lane,” he said. “It’s causing anger and displacement around the world. It’s reversing development gains built over decades. It’s pushing countries deeper into deficit. It’s worsening competition for land and water.”
“It fuels instability. And increasingly, it threatens the very existence of communities and countries. For all these reasons, I have never viewed climate action as just another issue. Climate action is at the heart of every aspect of the UN’s work.”
Guterres was one of the few world leaders still present at the COP on Friday afternoon, as most of the more than 90 people in attendance returned to their capitals, leaving negotiators to tackle issues such as the electrification of the global economy and a just transition out of fossil fuel industries for workers.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese flew out after hosting a meeting between major international investors and Australian renewable energy companies, followed by a meeting with Taneti Maamau, president of Kiribati, a low-lying Pacific nation. Albanese spent much of his two and a half days of negotiations discussing the fate of his country’s neighbors in the Pacific.
The Australian co-chair of the 31st “conference of the parties” to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has released a list of “reflections” which summarize the proposals expressed by countries since negotiations began on Monday. This will provide a vague basis for a first draft of the “coverage decision,” the final negotiated document adopted at the end of the summit, which will likely be the central outcome of Cop31.
Recent hedging decisions have produced significant progress: at Cop28, in Dubai in 2023, the hedging decision included a global commitment to “move away from fossil fuels,” and at Cop26, in Glasgow in 2021, a hedging decision produced a requirement to “phase down” coal.
This year, hoped-for resolutions include a target to derive 35% of the world’s final energy from electricity by 2035, seen as one of the most important ways to decarbonize the global economy, and commitments to reduce methane emissions, advance the phase-out of fossil fuels and ensure adequate financing for developing countries hit by climate catastrophe.
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The “reflections” document gives a clear idea of how difficult it will be for Australia – which, in an unusual sharing arrangement, chairs the negotiations while Turkey hosts them – to reach an agreement before it ends next Friday evening.
Chris Bowen, Australia’s Minister for Climate and Energy and chair of the negotiations, said: “We are ensuring that parties are listened to as we progress through the negotiations. The discussion text is not a negotiating text. Nothing in it is prejudged, locked in or necessarily needs to be included in the final decision.”
Countries will have until Saturday evening to respond, with an official draft coverage decision text not expected until early next week.
More than 100 companies and groups linked to fossil fuels were present at the negotiations, research showed Friday, despite efforts to crack down on the presence of lobbyists in recent years.
Prakash Dalal of Pro Public/Friends of the Earth Nepal criticized their presence. “Large polluters have caused loss of livelihoods, emotional damage, trauma and survival problems for our people,” he said. “We cannot tolerate the disproportionate space given to them compared to civil society and delegations from our countries. »
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