UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, has told world leaders at COP31 that the climate crisis is outrunning the world and that telling the truth must now be followed by faster action.
Delivering his remarks to the Leaders’ Summit in Antalya on Wednesday, November 11, Mr Guterres said emissions in 2025 hit an all-time high, while the last four years were the hottest ever recorded.
“Our first climate duty is to tell the truth. The brutal truth is that the climate crisis is outrunning us,” he said.
He warned that an overshoot above 1.5 degrees is now inevitable, but said science is not telling the world to surrender.
“We have the power to make sure the overshoot is a temporary breach, not a permanent sentence.”
Mr Guterres shared three lessons from the past decade: exponential change is possible, the case for fossil fuels is collapsing, and the world is moving far too slowly.
He pointed to solar power, which a decade ago generated 1% of global electricity but last year met nearly three-quarters of the growth in demand, and electric cars, set to make up nearly one in three car sales this year.
But he said global emissions must fall about 6% every year, while current national plans deliver at best one-third of that.
Even if fully implemented, he warned, the world would exceed 2.5 degrees by the end of the century.
He therefore proposed a new Climate Justice Compact built on four pillars:
1. Speed a just transition away from fossil fuels, with no new coal, no new oil and gas infrastructure that puts 1.5 degrees out of reach, and a tripling of renewable capacity by 2035.
2. Protect people through transformational adaptation, early warning systems for all, and swift support for loss and damage.
3. Deliver finance that is adequate and affordable, including at least $300 billion a year by 2035 from developed countries, and a tripling of adaptation finance.
4. Choose cooperation over fragmentation, warning that trade barriers and rivalry will make the transition costlier and slower.
Mr Guterres took aim at fossil fuel profits, noting that the nine largest oil companies pocketed $95 billion in profits in the last quarter alone, while the Loss and Damage Fund has received around $600 million – what those companies made in about 14 hours.
“It’s time for governments to tax these windfall profits – and use them to help vulnerable countries recover. Polluters must pay,” he said.
He closed with a message to young people, scientists, Indigenous Peoples, civil society and Small Island States, calling them the conscience of the struggle.
Mr Guterres also noted that starting next year, he will no longer be Secretary-General, but pledged: “I will not stop telling the truth. And I will not stop fighting for it.”
