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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/sep/20/simon-stiell-un-climate-chief-climate-progress-green-transition>
"Cleaning up industry and the global economy will produce massive economic
dividends for countries that grasp the opportunity – as the example of China
has shown, the UN climate chief has said, before a crunch summit of world
leaders this week.
In a last-ditch call to heads of government summoned to New York by the UN
secretary general this week, Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of the UN
framework convention on climate change, said governments would almost certainly
fail to come up with the climate commitments needed to fulfil the Paris
agreement before a deadline this month, but they could still reset their
economies to reap the advantages of low-carbon growth.
“We’re moving in the right direction,” he said. “Not fast enough, not deep
enough, but [the progress countries have made on moving to a low-carbon
economy] is showing that something is working. We need to find all the levers
that are available to us, to see how we can accelerate further.”
On Wednesday, on the sidelines of the UN general assembly, Stiell and the UN
secretary general, António Guterres, will make a final plea to world leaders –
excluding Donald Trump, who is snubbing the meeting – to present national plans
on the climate, before the Cop30 climate summit in Brazil in November. These
plans – known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs) – are required
under the Paris agreement, to set out how countries will limit global
temperature rises to 1.5C above preindustrial levels, beyond which the impacts
of the climate crisis become catastrophic and irreversible.
The deadline for the plans, which cover the next crucial decade of greenhouse
gas emissions, was meant to be February this year, but in the midst of Trump
taking office and global political upheaval, Stiell extended it to the end of
this month. At that point, the UN will assess the NDCs and judge whether they
fulfil the Paris aims.
Stiell knows the NDCs will fall short of the 1.5C target, as many countries are
likely to present inadequate responses. These include the US, Russia and Saudi
Arabia, all of which have sought to disrupt recent climate talks. But there are
also significant concerns over the plans of other big emitters, such as China
and the EU, which outwardly profess commitment to the climate."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
