U.N. chief Antonio Guterres warns Paris climate goals still not enough

Reporting from ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates —  United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres took his global message urging immediate climate action to officials gathered in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, where production of hydrocarbons remains a key driver of the economy.

Guterres is calling on governments to stop building new coal plants by 2020, cut greenhouse emissions by 45% over the next decade and overhauling fossil fuel-driven economies with new technologies such as solar and wind. The world, he said, “is facing a grave climate emergency.”

In remarks at a summit in Abu Dhabi, he painted a grim picture of how rapidly climate change is advancing, saying it is outpacing efforts to address it.

He lauded the Paris climate accord, but said even if its promises are fully met, the world still faces what he described as a catastrophic three-degree temperature rise by the end of the century.

Arctic permafrost is melting decades earlier than in even worst-case scenarios, he said, threatening to unlock vast amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas.

“It is plain to me that we have no time to lose,” Guterres said. “Sadly, it is not yet plain to all the decision makers that run our world.”

He spoke at the opulent Emirates Palace hotel, where Abu Dhabi was hosting a preparatory meeting for the U.N. Climate Action Summit in September. Guterres was expected to later take a helicopter ride to view Abu Dhabi’s Noor solar power plant.

When asked, U.N. representatives said the lavish Abu Dhabi summit and his planned helicopter ride would be carbon neutral, meaning their effects would be balanced by efforts such as planting trees and sequestering emissions. The U.N. says carbon dioxide emissions account for about 80% of global warming.

Guterres was in Abu Dhabi fresh off meetings with the Group of 20 leaders in Osaka, Japan. There, he appealed directly to heads of state of the world’s main emitters to step up their efforts. The G-20 member nations account for 80% of world emissions of greenhouse gases, he said.

At the G-20 meeting, 19 countries expressed their commitment to the Paris agreement, with only the United States dissenting.

In 2017, President Trump pledged to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement as soon as 2020, arguing it disadvantages American workers and taxpayers. Trump has also moved steadily to dismantle Obama administration efforts to rein in coal, oil and gas emissions. His position has been that these efforts also hurt the U.S. economy.

Guterres is urging business leaders and politicians to attend the Climate Action Summit this year with their plans ready to nearly halve greenhouse emissions by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

He suggested taxing major carbon-emitting industries and polluters, ending the subsidization of oil and gas, and halting the building of all new coal plants by next year.

“We are in a battle for our lives,” he said. “But it is a battle we can win.”