UN Secretary-General urges world leaders to reduce global warming
As world leaders gather in Brazil for the COP30 climate summit, UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday called for urgent action to reduce global temperatures and keep the 1.5°C target within reach.
“Every fraction of a degree means more hunger, displacement and loss – especially for those least responsible,” Guterres told leaders in Belém, Brazil. It could push ecosystems beyond irreversible tipping points, expose billions to unlivable conditions, and increase threats to peace and security,” according to the United Nations website.
He added that failure to contain global warming amounts to “moral failure and fatal negligence.” He said that every warmer year “will harm economies, deepen inequality and affect developing countries in the most severe ways – even though they cause it the least.” “We need a fundamental paradigm shift to quickly limit the size and duration of this overreach. Even a temporary overshoot would unleash far greater devastation and costs on every country. The Earth is about 1.42 degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial levels, and the oceans have also reached record levels, causing lasting damage to marine ecosystems and economies. According to the World Meteorological Organization’s 2025 State of the Climate Update released on Thursday.
The report warns that the 12-year period from 2015 to 2025 will be the hottest period since records began 176 years ago. “This unprecedented series of high temperatures, combined with the record increase in greenhouse gas levels last year, makes it clear that it will be virtually impossible to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius in the next few years without temporarily exceeding this target,” said World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Celeste Saulo. Temperatures will fall below this limit by the end of the century.
The report paints a bleak picture of worsening climate impacts. Arctic sea ice has reached the lowest winter maximum on record, while Antarctic sea ice remains well below average.
Global sea level rise, now nearly twice as fast as in the 1990s, has continued to accelerate due to ocean warming and melting ice.
Extreme weather events – from floods and destructive storms to heat waves and prolonged wildfires – have It disrupts food systems, displaces communities, and impedes economic development in multiple regions.
Guterres said at COP30 that the 1.5°C limit remains a “red line for humanity,” calling for rapid reductions in emissions, accelerated phase-out of fossil fuels, and stronger protection of forests and oceans.
The Secretary-General highlighted the growing momentum of the energy revolution. Clean energy, noting that investments in renewable energy sources now exceed investments in fossil fuels by $800 billion. “Clean energy wins in price, performance and potential, but what is still missing is political courage,” he said.
Marinez Scherer, COP30 Special Envoy for Oceans, also urged delegations to join forces for both forests and oceans, describing them as “one living system.” It shapes the planet’s climate.
“The science is clear – we can’t solve the climate crisis unless we work together for the ocean,” she said, pointing to the Amazon and the Atlantic Ocean as symbols of this interconnectedness. Dr. Scherer, a marine biologist and coastal zone management expert at the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Brazil, noted that the ocean produces more than half of the world’s oxygen, absorbs 90% of excess heat, and supports the livelihoods of billions – yet receives less than one percent of global climate finance.
“Protecting the ocean and the Amazon is not just an environmental necessity, it is a collective act of survival,” she said. "The ocean can’t wait, and neither can we."
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