Fight climate crisis, not each other: Stiell

UN climate chief urges nations to 'fight climate crisis, not each other' as COP30 opens in Brazil

- PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell Monday opened COP30 with a sharp warning that while the world has managed to bend the emissions curve downwards since the Paris Agreement, far stronger and faster action is needed to avert escalating climate disasters.

Stiell, in his opening address at the UN climate summit in Belem, Brazil, said countries must move “much, much faster”, both on cutting emissions and building resilience, warning that failing to do so will have severe economic, social and political costs.

"The emissions curve has been bent downwards ... but I am not sugarcoating it. We have so much more work to do,” he said.

"The science is clear: we can and must bring temperatures back down to 1.5 degrees Celsius after any temporary overshoot. Lamenting is not a strategy. We need solutions," he said, calling on leaders to turn their existing pledges into immediate action.