Kathmandu: As world leaders gathered in Brazil for the COP30 climate summit, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for urgent global action to curb rising temperatures and keep the 1.5°C target within reach.
“Every fraction of a degree means more hunger, displacement, and loss – especially for those least responsible,” he said, warning that failure to contain global heating would amount to “moral failure and deadly negligence.”
Guterres stressed that decades of inaction have made a temporary overshoot of the 1.5°C limit inevitable by the early 2030s, urging a “fundamental paradigm shift” to limit its duration and damage.
According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), global temperatures from January to August 2025 were 1.42°C above pre-industrial levels, with oceans reaching record highs. WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo warned that the 11-year period from 2015 to 2025 will be the hottest since records began 176 years ago.
Despite this, scientists say it remains possible to bring temperatures back below 1.5°C by the end of the century. The WMO’s State of the Global Climate Update 2025 highlights accelerating sea-level rise, record-low Arctic and Antarctic ice, and worsening extreme weather events.
Calling the 1.5°C limit “a red line for humanity,” Guterres urged rapid emissions cuts, a phase-out of fossil fuels, and stronger protection for forests and oceans. He noted that renewable energy investments now exceed fossil fuels by $800 billion, emphasizing that what is still lacking is “political courage.”
Marinez Scherer, COP30 Special Envoy for the Ocean, underscored the need for joint action to protect both forests and oceans. “The ocean cannot wait, and neither can we,” she said, stressing that protecting the ocean and the Amazon is “a collective act of survival.”
