At the opening of the United Nations summit known as COP30 on Monday, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell warned those gathered in Brazil of the “indisputable” dangers of inaction.
“Ten years ago in Paris, we were designing the future—a future that would clearly see the curve of emissions bend downwards,” he said, referring to the international agreement to reduce planet-heating pollution in hopes of keeping temperature rise this century at 1.5°C, relative to preindustrial levels. The global average temperature last year was above that limit.
“The emissions curve has been bent downwards. Because of what was agreed in halls like this, with governments legislating, and markets responding. But I am not sugar-coating it. We have so much more work to do,” Stiell stressed. “We must move much, much, faster on both reductions of emissions and strengthening resilience.”
“The science is clear: We can and must bring temperatures back down to 1.5°C after any temporary overshoot,” he continued. A UN assessment from last week found that under Paris Agreement countries’ recently submitted plans, or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the global temperature could soar to 2.3-2.5°C.
Stiell said: “We find ourselves here in Belém, at the mouth of the Amazon. And we can learn a lot from this mighty river. The Amazon isn’t a single entity, rather a vast river system supported and powered by over a thousand tributaries. To accelerate implementation, the COP process must be supported in the same way—powered by the many streams of international cooperation.”
“We don’t need to wait for late NDCs to slowly trickle in, to spot the gap and design the innovations necessary to tackle it,” he noted. “To falter while megadroughts wreck national harvests, sending food prices soaring, makes zero sense, economically or politically. To squabble while famines take hold, forcing millions to flee their homelands, this will never be forgotten, as conflicts spread.”
“While climate disasters decimate the lives of millions, when we already have the solutions, this will never, ever be forgiven,” he argued.
