Wealthy Countries Need Zero Planet-Heating Emissions To Combat Climate Crisis, UN Warns

(Photo : Getty Images/Marco Bello)

The United Nations said that the wealthy nations must reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2040 to combat climate crisis.

An attack on wealthy countries and the fossil fuel sector for their sluggish response to the climate issue was launched by UN Secretary General António Guterres as he gave the opening remarks at the UN climate ambition conference, which was held in New York on Wednesday.

The UN official underscored that the transition to clean energy is "decades behind" in the world.

"We must make up time lost to foot-dragging, arm-twisting and the naked greed of entrenched interests raking in billions from fossil fuels," Guterres added.

Opened the gates to hell

As he assembled world leaders for a high-level summit on the climate disaster, Guterres gave a chilling proclamation: "Humanity has opened the gates to hell."

Without drastic action, he claimed that human activities caused severe heatwaves, floods, and wildfires to be seen all over the world and that a "dangerous and unstable" future of 2.8C global warming was looming.

Prior to the UN's COP28 climate meeting in Dubai in December, the one-day conference is meant to increase global momentum toward reducing pollution that warms the earth.

Only 34 countries and seven non-governmental organizations were given speaking opportunities at the UN chief's summit out of the almost 200 nations that were in New York for the General Assembly.

Some of the greatest polluters in the world, including China, India, and the United States, were noticeably absent from the speaker list, despite the fact that US climate envoy John Kerry is present.

Rishi Sunak, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, who is facing domestic criticism over proposals to undermine the nation's climate pledges, was also absent from the list.

"There's no doubt that the absence of so many leaders from the world's biggest economies and emitters will clearly have an impact on the outcomes of the summit and diminish the contribution that many of us had hoped it could make," said longtime climate negotiations analyst Alden Meyer of the European think-tank 3EG.

According to Guterres, the summit's goal is to raise the bar for climate action.

Extra effort against climate crisis

The UN pleaded big emitting countries to take additional action.

Guterres also urged for funding to help poor countries switch to renewable energy and adapt to a warmer world, as well as for more and faster reductions in heat-trapping emissions.

Other developing and small island state leaders bemoaned the wealthy countries' failure to make progress toward delivering the $100 billion in promised climate aid as well as the challenges in obtaining financing at reasonable rates to expand the infrastructure required to prepare for a world with more intense storms, heat waves, and floods.

Selwin Hart, a special adviser to the UN Secretary-General on climate action and just transition, claimed there has been "massive backsliding" on commitments.

"The countries that committed to net-zero by 2050, and to the 1.5-degree goal of the Paris Agreement, they're expanding fossil fuel licensing at a time when science tells us this is totally incompatible with this 1.5-degree goal," he said in an interview.