New York [US], September 9: UN Secretary-General AntonioGuterres on Friday urged the Group of 20 top economic powers, which are responsible for more than 80% of the emissions that cause global warming, to use their weekend summit to send a strong message on climate change.
Guterres said all licensing or funding for new fossil fuel projects should be stopped and that the G20 must keep the "1.5-degree goal alive," referring to the 2015 Paris climate agreement that set 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) as a global guardrail in atmospheric warming, with countries pledging to try to prevent that much long-term warming if possible.
He told reporters at the G20 summit in New Delhi that the gathering's theme - One Earth, One Family, One Future - resonates today not just as an ideal but as an indictment of the times.
"Because if we are indeed one global family - we today resemble a rather dysfunctional one," he said. "Divisions are growing, tensions are flaring up and trust is eroding - which together raise the specter of fragmentation, and ultimately, confrontation."
Source: Emirates News Agency