UN Secretary-General Urges World Leaders to Break deadly Cycle of Global Warming  

Addis Ababa, November 28/2023 (ENA)UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged world leaders at this week’s climate conference, COP28, to break the deadly cycle of global warming before a “deadly tipping point” is reached.

UN chief was briefing reporters in New York after seeing for himself over the weekend the “profoundly shocking” speed at which ice is melting in Antarctica – three times faster than the rate in the early 1990s.

New figures reveal that sea ice at the South Pole is now 1.5 million square kilometres below average for this time of year; that’s equal to the combined surface area of Portugal, Spain, France and Germany combined.

“What happens in Antarctica doesn’t stay in Antarctica”,  Guterres said. “We live in an interconnected world. Melting sea ice means rising seas. And that directly endangers lives and livelihoods in coastal communities across the globe.

He noted that it’s not just the impact of floods and saltwater on food and water supplies at stake, but the viability of small islands and entire cities on coasts across the world.

“The movement of waters around Antarctica distributes heat, nutrients and carbon around the world, helping to regulate our climate and regional weather patterns”, he told correspondents. 

At COP28 in Dubai, which starts later this week, “leaders must break this cycle”, the UN chief declared.

“The solutions are well known. Leaders must act to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, protect people from climate chaos, and end the fossil fuel age.”

Only a global pact to triple renewable energy use, a doubling in energy efficiency and access to clean power for all by 2030, will be sufficient, he argued.