The United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, warned on Saturday of the urgent need for a climate agreement between rich and developing countries or else the entire world population will be «doomed».
Guterres, a few hours before the COP27 to be held in the Egyptian town of Sharm el Sheikh, recalled how ten years ago developed countries pledged to provide the world’s poorest nations with a total of 100 billion euros by 2020 in aid for climate protection; a promise that has not been fulfilled.
«There is no way we can avoid a catastrophe if we don’t both reach a pact in this regard,» he said in an interview with the British newspaper ‘The Guardian’. «Right now,» he lamented, «we are all doomed.»
Guterres has declared that the world is approaching an «irreversible» climate crisis and «damage from which it is not going to be able to recover». «We need more urgency, more ambition and to rebuild trust between the north and south of the planet,» he added.
«Half of humanity is in danger zones from floods, droughts, extreme storms and wildfires. No nation is immune. Yet we continue to feed our addiction to fossil fuels. In the face of all this, we have one of two options: either collective action or collective suicide. It is in our hands,» he concluded.
