If nations do their part to limit global warming, the United Nations agency that facilitates yearly climate talks won't be needed anymore except as a "data repository," the top U.N. climate official says.
But that will require governments to stop "hiding behind loopholes in decision texts or dodging the hard work ahead" by more meeting their carbon-cutting targets and spending at least US$2.4 trillion a year on aid for poorer nations, U.N. Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said in a speech on Friday at ADA University in Baku, Azerbaijan, which will host the next round of climate talks toward the end of this year.
"In a functioning era of implementation, I can foresee our organization existing only as a data repository, accurately reflecting the numbers, as countries deliver on their commitments, in line with the already agreed global targets," said Stiell, a former government official from Grenada.
"It is my earnest hope," he continued, "that by 2050 this organization will be rendered redundant, in a net-zero, climate-resilient global economy, consigned to a place in the history books: a chapter about how humanity saved itself and its only home."
To make that happen, Stiell said, developing nations not including China must be given the trillions in aid so they can invest in renewable energy sources and adapt to more drought, extreme weather, floods and heat waves.
"Whether on slashing emissions or building climate-resilience, it’s already blazingly obvious that finance is the make-or-break factor in the world’s climate fight – in quantity, quality, and innovation," he said.
"In fact, without far more finance, 2023’s climate wins will quickly fizzle away into more empty promises. We need torrents – not trickles – of climate finance."
Edging toward 1.5°
The speech served to both prod and rebuke nations as the chance of temporarily exceeding 1.5° Celsius – the preferred limit set in the 2015 Paris Agreement based on scientists' warnings of what's needed to avoid the worst effects of warming – has "risen steadily" since that time, when it was close to zero, the World Meteorological Organization said.
Last year was the warmest on record, WMO reported, edging close to the Paris climate treaty's threshold. The world hit the record books by a huge margin in 2023, soaring 1.45° above pre-industrial times.
Last year was 0.16° warmer than 2016, the previous hottest year on record, which was 1.29° above preindustrial levels partly due to a strong El Niño climate event, according to WMO data.
Global temperatures in 2023 set new monthly records in every month between June and December, with July and August becoming the hottest months ever on record.
