UN chief warns climate crisis is ‘outrunning’ world at COP31

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned world leaders on Wednesday that the slow international response to climate change had put the world on a path to destruction, urging governments to step up efforts to protect the planet.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned world leaders on Wednesday that the slow international response to climate change had put the world on a path to destruction, urging governments to step up efforts to protect the planet.

“The brutal truth is that the climate crisis is outrunning us. This is the path to mutually assured destruction,” Guterres said at the COP31 climate summit in the Turkish city of Antalya, pointing to rising emissions, global temperatures and worsening climate-related disasters.

“But science is not telling us to surrender. It is telling us to fight harder,” he added.

Guterres called on governments to do more to preserve the planet for future generations, as leaders gathered for a series of speeches during the high-level segment of the two-week United Nations climate conference.

Former French prime minister Laurent Fabius, who presided over the 2015 Paris climate conference and leads an advisory council of former COP presidents, said on Tuesday that leaders should focus on putting their climate commitments into practice.

“It is an opportunity for leaders to make some announcements, and more this time, to explain how they will implement, because the key word in Antalya is implementation,” Fabius told Reuters.

Delegates from nearly 200 countries are meeting at COP31, which runs until November 20, as negotiators seek agreement on measures to increase the share of electricity in global energy use and revive efforts to move away from fossil fuels.