Deputy Secretary-General's message to the Climate Innovation Forum

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

The climate crisis is our number one emergency.

Already, rising temperatures are wreaking havoc around the world – disrupting businesses, damaging finances, and destroying lives.

And developing countries are suffering the most, despite having done the very least to cause the crisis.

But we are on course for far worse:

On current policies, the world is heading for a 2.8 degree rise in global temperatures.

This spells disaster.

A disaster we can avert.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, tells us that we can still limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees – the ambition set out in the Paris Agreement.

However, the window of opportunity to do so is closing –fast.

To keep 1.5 alive, we must halve global emissions by 2030. That means massively accelerating climate action around the world starting today. It means making deep and rapid cuts to carbon pollution and simultaneously seizing the opportunities to create a green, resilient economy.

To achieve this, the United Nations Secretary-General has proposed an Acceleration Agenda to supercharge climate action in every country and every sector.

This asks governments to hit fast forward on their net zero timelines. So that developed countries reach net zero as close as possible to 2040 and emerging economies do so by 2050.

It also urges them to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to renewables: 

Phasing out coal by 2030 in OECD countries and 2040 in all others;

Ensuring net zero electricity generation by 2035 in developed countries and 2040 elsewhere;

Ending licensing and funding of new fossil-fuel projects;

And putting a stop to fossil fuel subsidies once and for all.

The UN Secretary-General has also urged governments to support private sector decarbonization and accelerate climate justice:

Asking that they create the regulatory environments needed for businesses to take climate action, instead of maintaining rules and subsidies that undermine it;

Urging government to work with the private sector to decarbonize critical sectors – from shipping, aviation and steel, to cement, aluminum and agriculture;

And calling on developed countries to deliver long-overdue finance to developing countries and overhaul the multilateral development banks so that trillions of dollars in private finance flow to the green economy.

I urge all governments to step-up and respond to the Secretary-General’s calls.  And the private sector to do the same, and support these efforts:  

First, by working with governments to decarbonize critical sectors and develop the policy and regulatory environments you need;

And second, by presenting clear net zero transition plans in line with the credibility standard presented by the Secretary General’s High-Level Expert Group on net zero pledges.

Because it is only through transparency and accountability that we can avert disaster. Carbon offsets, shadow markets and greenwashing have no place in today’s world. What matters is real, sustained emissions cuts. 

The Secretary-General has invited first-movers on the Acceleration Agenda to join him at the Climate Ambition Summit he is hosting in New York in September.

The Summit is open to government and business leaders showing serious ambition.

And I hope to see some of you there.

Because time is short and the stakes are sky-high. We must act – now.

Thank you.