The race to a zeroemission world starts now Antnio Guterres
Transcriber: TED Translators Admin
Reviewer: Rhonda Jacobs
We are all here today
because the climate countdown has begun,
and we are nowhere near
where we need to be.
Science tells us
we must limit to global heating
to 1.5 degrees Celsius
above pre-industrial levels.
We are on track
for three degrees at least.
Billions of people around the world
are already suffering
from our failure to act.
Climate disruption, due to our outdated
addiction to fossil fuels,
is causing unprecedented wildfires,
more intense and frequent cyclones,
floods, droughts,
and other weather extremes.
Toxic air pollution is choking
our major cities and harming our health,
and biodiversity on land and sea
is under growing pressure.
No country’s immune
from the climate crisis.
But in every country,
it is the poorest and most vulnerable
who are hardest hit,
despite having done least
to cause the problem.
Over the past 25 years,
the richest 10 percent
of the global population
has been responsible for more than half
of all carbon emissions,
and the poorest 50 percent
were responsible for just
seven percent of emissions.
Rank injustice and inequality
of this scale is a cancer.
If we don’t act now, this century
may be one of humanity’s last.
The COVID-19 pandemic
has laid bare the fundamental injustices
and inequality of our societies.
The upheaval of this pandemic
presents an opportunity
to chart a new course,
one that can address every aspect
of the climate crisis head-on.
History shows that when we grab
such moments, we can succeed.
We can build a safer, fairer,
more resilient world.
But we need to move quickly.
That is why I’m urging governments
to take six climate-positive actions
to recover better together:
Invest in green jobs;
do not bail out polluting
industries, especially coal;
end fossil fuel subsidies,
and put a price on carbon;
take climate risks into account
in all financial and policy decisions;
work together in solidarity;
and most important, leave no one behind.
This is the course of action
that thousands of companies,
cities, states, regions,
universities, and investors
are already choosing
by committing to net-zero emissions
by 2050 at the latest.
They are moving to protect
people and our planet.
Momentum is building.
Cities and regions with a carbon footprint
greater than the United States
and companies with revenues
of more than 11.4 trillion US dollars
have now committed
to net-zero emissions by 2050.
That’s doubled the number
from when this initiative was launched
at the Climate Action Summit in 2019.
Likewise, investors managing
over four trillion US dollars
have joined the race to zero.
This number has also more than doubled
since the initiative was first launched
at the same summit.
But it is still necessary for governments
to create the tax
and regulatory frameworks
that will further stimulate
climate action by the private sector.
European Union has announced
plans to cut its emissions
by at least 55 percent by 2030
and to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.
And China has recently
announced its intention
to become carbon neutral before 2060.
I now count on these
and other main emitters
to present before COP26
concrete plans and policies
that will bring the world
to carbon neutrality by 2050.
We must make sure that each country,
each city, company, bank,
and international organization
has a transition plan
to reach zero net emissions.
We also need to see much greater efforts
to build resilience
in vulnerable countries,
which do least to cause climate change
but bear the worst impacts.
In the big coastal deltas,
the islands of the Pacific
and the Caribbean,
and dry lands such as
the Africa Sahel region,
we must help people
adapt to climate impacts
as they recover from COVID-19.
I call on developed countries
to meet their commitment
to mobilize 100 billion US dollars a year
for mitigation, adaptation,
and resilience in developing countries.
We must work to create
the conditions needed
for a massive mobilization of funds.
Also from financial institutions
and private investors.
We must keep building climate ambition.
On the fifth anniversary
of the Paris Agreement in December,
leaders from government,
business, and civil society
will gather online to do just that.
We need to kickstart the race
to the Glasgow Climate Conference in 2021.
To those who have already
joined the race, I applaud you,
but I also ask you
to do more and much faster.
You have raised your ambition
and your commitment.
We need you now to also raise your voices
and push governments to do better,
especially those who emit the most.
To those yet to join,
my message is simple:
We can only win the race to zero together.
So I urge you all to get on board.
The countdown has begun.