Failure to limit global warming to 1.5°C is a “moral failure and mortal negligence,” the UN secretary-general said at the opening of the UN session. KS30 Climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belem.
Antonio Guterres said even a temporary excess would have “dramatic consequences. It could push ecosystems toward catastrophic tipping points, expose billions of people to uninhabitable conditions and increase threats to peace and security.”
Speaking to heads of state from more than 30 countries, Guterres described the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels as a “red line” for a habitable planet and urged his audience to achieve a “paradigm shift” so that the consequences of exceeding it could be minimized.
“Every fraction of a degree means more hunger, displacement and loss – especially for those least responsible. This is a moral failure – and deadly negligence,” he said.
On Thursday, the World Meteorological Organization confirmed that emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases have risen to a record high. It says 2025 could be the second or third warmest year on record. The 10 hottest years on record have all occurred in the last decade.
Guterres said there had been some progress, but not fast enough. Many countries have put forward more ambitious plans to reduce emissions. If they were fully implemented, he said, the world would be on track for global warming of about 2.3°C.
This forecast leaves the planet in dangerous territory, but it is significantly better than what seemed possible 20 years ago. This is largely due to international support for the 2015 Paris Agreement and the clean energy revolution that is gaining momentum. But several powerful countries, especially the United States, are backing away from action on climate change as far-right nationalism takes hold.
Guterres said the oil, gas and coal industries were holding back change. In his harshest criticism, he argued that these companies take advantage of huge subsidies and political support and use them to the detriment of everyone else.
He said: “Too many corporations are making record profits from climate destruction while spending billions on lobbying, deceiving the public and obstructing progress.”
The summit – and Cop30 next week – comes in turbulent times. With much of the world distracted by war, the US is leading the charge in efforts to forge international cooperation to solve shared global problems.
Ding Xuexiang, China's vice premier, made a thinly veiled reference to Trump's tariffs, saying the transition to green energy depends on the free flow of green technology and the removal of trade barriers. “China is a country that lives up to its commitments,” he said, noting that his country, which is the world's largest carbon emitter, has set a goal over the next five years to reach peak carbon use and strengthen environmental sustainability goals.
Gustavo Petro, Colombia's president, had particularly harsh words for the absent science-denying US president. “Mr. Trump is literally against humanity,” he said. “We see the collapse that will happen if the US does not decarbonize its economy. This is 100% wrong.”
“This is a real apocalypse,” he said. In addition to Trump, he placed much of the blame on oil industry lobbyists in the police system. “They go against life. It's immoral. It's not human.” As a result, he said, the world has moved from climate change to climate crisis to now facing climate collapse.
Many countries have already suffered from climate disasters. Britain's Prince William noted that the world is dangerously approaching tipping points in natural systems – ocean currents, rainforests and ice caps – on which all life depends. Among the solutions, he said, was the need to recognize that Indigenous peoples are climate leaders and give them legal recognition of their land.
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Countries in the global south want the industrialized global north to support adaptation to increasingly extreme weather conditions and help them with the energy transition, but financial commitments are still nowhere near the $1.3 trillion a year agreed at Cop29 in Baku. Guterres said developed countries must set a clear path towards this goal.
Keir Starmer told the summit that the UK had “gone above and beyond” in tackling the climate crisis because it was a “win-win” for people and the economy that would cut bills, create jobs and could generate £1 trillion for the UK in five years.
He said: “Ten years ago the world came together in Paris, united in our determination to tackle the climate crisis. The consensus, based on scientific knowledge, is clear. And that unity was not only international, it existed in most of our countries. In the UK there was a cross-party consensus. The only question was how fast we could go. Today, sadly, that consensus has disappeared.”
The prime minister took veiled aim at prominent figures including Bill Gates and Tony Blair who have called for slower action on climate change. In a sharp rejection of that attitude, he said: “While some argue that now is not the time to act and say that addressing climate change can wait, my question is: Can energy security wait too? Can bill payers wait? Can we win the race for green jobs and investment by moving slowly? Of course not.”
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Belém should become a policeman of truth. “Now is the time to take the warnings of science seriously,” he said, praising the Paris climate agreement for helping the world move away from its previous doomsday path of 5 degrees of warming, but warning that the planet is still on track for 2.5 degrees of warming, which would kill 250,000 people every year and reduce GDP by 30%.
He told leaders there could be no solution to the climate crisis without addressing inequality within and between countries, and said they should be inspired by indigenous people who live more sustainably with nature.
He ended with a reference to Indigenous Yanomami belief that forest dwellers help hold up the sky and said he hoped the summit would help achieve climate stabilization.
Two more important announcements were made on the first day of the summit. Brazil has officially launched its flagship Cop30 initiative. object “Rainforest forever” with new investment commitments of $3 billion from Norway over 10 years and unconditional promises of support from China. The fund aims to attract $25 billion in investment from governments and another $100 billion from financial markets to finance the conservation of existing forests.
Another breakthrough was the first global agreement to recognize and strengthen the land tenure of indigenous peoples and other traditional communities. More than 160 million hectares (395 million acres) will be covered by the commitment by 2030.
