Two years to save the world, says UN climate chief

Simon Stiell told Britain and other rich nations they must produce stronger plans to cut emissions.

Simon Stiell on stage at Chatham House, in London. Picture: AFP

The UN’s climate chief has warned that there are two years to save the world and urged Britain and other rich nations to produce stronger plans to cut emissions.

UN Framework Convention on Climate Change executive ­secretary Simon Stiell said the next two years were pivotal due to “record-shattering heat” and a race between countries to “a new clean energy economy”.

Mr Stiell, a former minister of Grenada who helped to forge last year’s climate deal in Dubai, delivered a speech at Chatham House in London entitled “Two years to save the world” after March was confirmed as the 10th month in a row to break temperature records. Action by the G20 must be “at the core of the solution”, because its members generated about four fifths of global emissions, he said.

“We still have a chance to make greenhouse gas emissions tumble ... but we need these stronger plans now,” he said.

Countries have a deadline of next February for submitting plans to the UN for how much they will cut emissions by 2035.

The UK has reduced emissions by 52.7 per cent since 1990.

However, the government’s independent advisers have said it risks missing its UN goal of a 68 per cent cut by 2030.

Mr Stiell said the G20 needed to “rise to this moment” despite the geopolitical challenges countries were facing with conflict in Gaza and Ukraine.

“I’ll be candid: Blame-shifting is not a strategy. Sidelining climate isn’t a solution to a crisis that will decimate every G20 economy and has already started to hurt.”

No big economies have yet submitted a national climate plan. Some of the most important will come from China, the US and the EU – the first, second and third biggest emitters.

Jamal Srouji, of think-tank World Resources Institute, said a new plan from Brazil, which had a pro-environment president and was hosting next year’s UN climate summit in the Amazon rainforest, would be influential.

“As a big developing country, what they intend to do might change the tone,” Mr Srouji said.

Britain’s civil servants have started work on a new UN climate plan, but with a general election expected by the end of this year, the final numbers look likely to be a decision for the next government.

Environmentalists are concerned about the prospect of ­Donald Trump winning the US election in November. While President Joe Biden has initiated a $US370bn ($568bn) green energy plan, when Mr Trump was president he pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement on climate change. A Trump victory would pose a headache for this year’s UN climate summit, which is being held a few days after the US election in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The Times