UN climate secretary calls on world leaders in the run-up to the climate conference: “Stop dawdling and take action”

The importance of the UN climate conference that starts on Thursday can hardly be overestimated. 2023 is a year of weather extremes, with exceptionally severe flooding and heat waves. It will almost certainly be the warmest year on record.

On Monday, the UN warned that the world is still doing far too little to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

We are on track to about 2.5 to 3 degrees Celsius of warming compared to pre-industrial times. That is not only far from the goal of the Paris climate agreement, which sets 2 degrees as an upper limit. Scientists warn that such strong warming would trigger several feedback systems that cause even more warming, such as the thaw of permafrost. As a result, warming threatens to become completely uncontrollable.