World should focus on 3 priorities in addressing climate change - UN's Guterres

BAKU. Nov 12 (Interfax) - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged all countries to focus on three priorities in addressing climate change, namely reducing greenhouse emissions, protecting humankind from climate crisis consequences, and financing.

"First, emergency emissions reductions. To limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, we must cut global emissions 9% every year. By 2030, they must be down 43% on 2019 levels," Guterres said in his remarks at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku on Tuesday.

"All countries must do their part, and G20 must lead. They are the largest emitters with the greatest capacity and responsibilities. They must bring their technological know-hows together," Guterres said.

Secondly, Guterres called for doing more to protect humankind from devastating effects of climate change. "The gap between adaptation needs and finance could reach up to $359 billion a year by 2030. And these missing dollars are not abstractions on a balance sheet. These are lives taken, harvests lost, and development denied," he said.

It is important like never before now for countries to deliver on their financing commitments, he said.

"Developed countries must race the clock to double adaptation finance to at least $40 billion a year by 2025," he said.

Financing measures to address climate change is not charity but investment, and climate actions are not a choice but an imperative, he said.

"We are in the final countdown to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. And time is not on our side. [...] And no country is spared," he said.

Therefore, "at this COP, you must agree to rules of fair, effective carbon markets that support that fight," he said.

Guterres also highlighted the importance of investing in renewable energy.

"Last year and for the first time, the amount invested in greens and renewables overtook the amount spent on fossil fuels. Almost everywhere solar and wind are the cheapest sources of new electricity," he said.