Culture and Society
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The top 10 hottest years since the temperature record began have all happened in the last ten years, and scientists have already said that 2024 is "effectively certain” to be the hottest year on record. With governments across the world dillydallying as the consequences of the climate crisis become more serious every day, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for greater action in his end-of-year message – and he doesn’t mince his words.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.“This is climate breakdown – in real-time. We must exit this road to ruin – and we have no time to lose. In 2025, countries must put the world on a safer path by dramatically slashing, and supporting the transition to a renewable future. It is essential – and it is possible,” Guterres stated in his message.
Lives and livelihoods lost due to an increase in the incidence or severity of natural disasters may well continue in the face of climate inaction. However, 2024 was a year of hostility from governments to making changes, such as the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, with the crucial climate conference COP29 ending in failure.
"The UN COP29 Climate Summit has been another disappointing affirmation of the status quo. The promised financing is pitiful – and the manner will increase the debt burdens of countries who are impacted the most yet who contributed the least to the climate crisis,” Aditi Sen, Climate and Energy Program Director at the Rainforest Action Network, said in a statement.
With a new president who has called climate change both "an expensive hoax" and a "serious subject" headed for the White House in just a short few weeks, and bolder tactics in allegedly sabotaging climate talks by oil-producing countries, the future does not look hopeful. But doomerism and giving up don’t fix things.
The best day to change things is today, the next best is tomorrow. In the same vein, the Paris Agreement aims to keep global warming to less than 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) above pre-industrial levels. We are likely to fail that (and may even have done so already), but the next threshold to be aimed for is perhaps not 2 degrees, but 1.51. With every fraction of a degree staved off, the fewer consequences.
“There are no guarantees for what’s ahead in 2025. But I pledge to stand with all those who are working to forge a more peaceful, equal, stable, and healthy future for all people. Together, we can make 2025 a new beginning,” Guterres said. “Not as a world divided. But as nations united.”
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