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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres: "We can't go on like this"
Photo: Lev Radin / Pacific Press Agency / IMAGO
At the Petersberg Dialogue in Berlin, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for more international cooperation against the climate crisis.
"What worries me most is that we are unable to work together as a multilateral society in the face of this global crisis," Guterres said in a video message at the start of the Petersberg Climate Dialogue.
Instead of taking responsibility, states continued to point the finger at others.
"We can't go on like this."
In order to keep the agreed climate goals alive and to create climate-resilient communities, one must restore trust and take action together.
Guterres expects the G7 and G20 countries to take a leadership role on this point.
“We have a choice.
Either we act together or we commit collective suicide,” Guterres said.
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At the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, ministers and representatives from around 40 countries want to agree on the further course in the fight against the climate crisis.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi spoke on the first day of the two-day meeting.
Germany and Egypt are the organizers of the conference, which is intended to set the course for the COP27 world climate conference in early November in the Egyptian coastal town of Sharm el Sheikh.
Coal only a "short-term emergency measure"
In his speech, Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz reaffirmed the German climate targets and at the same time warned against a global renaissance of fossil fuels.
"No one can be satisfied that the share of coal-fired power generation is increasing again here, too," he said.
"It is all the more important that we make one thing very clear: This is an emergency measure for a very short period of time that will not be at the expense of our climate goals."
In Germany alone, climate change has caused an average of 6.6 billion euros in damage per year since 2000.
According to a study commissioned by the German Ministry of Economic Affairs, the total cost was at least around 145 billion euros.
This is only a partial balance, because some damage, such as the loss of biodiversity, cannot be converted into money.
Baerbock: We have eight years left
"The climate crisis is now the biggest security problem for everyone on earth," said Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens).
»We don't have ten, 20, 30 years, no, we still have eight years to reduce global emissions by almost half.« Baerbock held the wealthier countries in particular responsible.
»The industrialized countries bear a very special responsibility.
Because we are leaders in emissions.« The industrialized countries would have to keep promises and achieve the goal of 1 trillion dollars for climate finance.
At the conference, the Federal Government presented a concept for a protective shield against risks and damage in developing countries.
The proposal is aimed at regulations for early warning systems in particularly vulnerable countries, precautionary plans and fast financing systems in the event of damage events.
At the UN climate summit COP26 in Glasgow last November, the states committed to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees and to sharpening their national climate targets by the end of the year at the latest.
The President of this COP26 meeting, Alok Sharma, drew a sobering conclusion in Berlin.
Progress so far has been very slow and not in line with what was agreed in Glasgow, Sharma said.
"And I have to say this, and I say this with absolute certainty: a lot of the promises we made or agreed on are just words, paper," Sharma said.
slue/dpa
