Humanity Paying Price for Torching Planet, Secretary-General Says at UN Environment Programme Adaptation Gap Report Launch, Urging Action to Address Climate Calamity

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message for the launch of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Adaptation Gap Report, in Nairobi today: 

Today’s Adaptation Gap Report is clear:  climate calamity is the new reality.  And we’re not keeping up.

Earth’s ablaze. And humanity’s exposed.  This year, we’ve suffered the hottest day, and the hottest seas, in the history books.  Fifteen of the past 16 months have broken temperature records.

And today, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and partners tell us that 2024 is on track to be the hottest year ever recorded — almost two months before it ends.

Humanity’s torching the planet and paying the price.

Look at the past six months.  May:  floods sweep East Africa and Brazil.  Heatwave grips Asia.  June:  deadly heat in Mexico, the Middle East, and the United States.  July:  the Caribbean’s earliest ever category 5 hurricane.  August:  Greek cities surrounded by flames.  September: Hurricane Yagi strikes South-East Asia.  Record wildfires reported in South America.  The worst United States hurricane since Katrina.  And October:  floods inflame crisis in the Sahel.  And wreak havoc in Spain — where a year’s worth of rain reportedly falls in just eight hours.

Behind each of these headlines is human tragedy, economic and ecological destruction, and political failure.  Climate catastrophe is hammering health, widening inequalities, harming sustainable development, and rocking the foundations of peace.  The vulnerable are hardest hit.

And taxpayers are footing the bill.  While the purveyors of all this destruction — particularly the fossil fuel industry — reap massive profits and subsidies.  Meanwhile, the gap between the funds needed for adaptation and the funds available to developing countries is set to reach up to $359 billion a year by 2030.

We need urgent action in four areas.

First, new national climate action plans, or NDCs, must set out adaptation planning, financing, and implementation needs clearly — informed by high-quality data.  Second, every person on Earth must be protected by an effective early warning system by 2027 in line with the United Nations Early Warnings for All Initiative.

Third, a massive increase in adaptation finance from public and private sources.  Every country must have the means to protect themselves from climate extremes.  And seize the benefits of adaptation to drive progress across the sustainable development goals.  We need developed countries to double adaptation finance to at least $40 billion a year by 2025 — an important step to closing the finance gap.  We need to unlock a new climate finance goal at the COP29 [twenty-ninth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change].

And to build on the Pact for the Future by driving action on debt, and substantially increasing the lending capacity of the Multilateral Development Banks — and their potential to leverage far more private finance. Today’s report estimates that developing countries outside China are spending more on debt interest payments than they need for adaptation.

Fourth, we must strike the heart of the crisis:  greenhouse gases.  The Group of 20 (G20) must lead global efforts to cut emissions 9 per cent a year to 2030, phase out fossil fuels fast and fairly, and accelerate the renewables revolution – so that we limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C.

The climate crisis is here.  We can’t postpone protection.  We must adapt — now.