UN Secretary-General Guterres: “On the highway to climate hell” Qatar’s foreign minister accuses the German government of “double standards”.

At the world climate conference in Egypt, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned in gloomy terms about the consequences of global warming:

In a speech to dozens of heads of state and government in Sharm el Sheikh on Monday, Guterres said: “We are fighting the battle of our lives – and we are about to lose.” He warned of droughts, floods, storms and rising sea levels as a result of the climate crisis.

The goal agreed at the World Climate Conference in Paris in 2015 to limit warming to 1.5 degrees compared to the pre-industrial period is under acute threat. The Portuguese called for a “climate solidarity pact” that rich countries should now conclude with emerging and developing countries. The United States and China are especially responsible for this. He literally said: “Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish!”

Guterres supported poor countries’ demands for compensatory payments from industrialized countries for the climate damage they had already suffered – called “loss and damage” in UN jargon. This topic should no longer be swept under the rug.

In Sharm el-Sheikh, speeches by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and new British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak were on the agenda for the afternoon. 45,000 participants are registered on site for the congress. In the Red Sea resort, representatives from nearly 200 countries will spend two weeks discussing how to step up the fight against global warming.

(yam/sda/dpa)