Davos: The world is "losing the race" against
climate change, UN chief Antonio Guterres warned Thursday at the elite Davos forum, demanding bolder action from governments to arrest catastrophic warming.
“Climate change is the defining issue of our time. We are losing the race," he said on the margins of the
World Economic Forum in Davos, which has featured much handwringing on the crisis this week.
“It is absolutely central to reverse this trend.” Following a UN summit last month in Poland, which was designed to advance the Paris climate accord, Guterres said he was "not hopeful" that nations would find the necessary resolve. But he stressed: "We need political will and we need governments who understand that this is the most important priority of our times."
The Paris accord has been shaken by the withdrawal of the US, and by threats to do the same by
Brazil's new hard-right leader, Jair Bolsonaro. He said the commitments made in Paris were already “not enough”.
“If what we agreed in Paris would be materialised, the temperature would rise more than 3.0 degrees (Celsius)," he said.