Guterres warns at Climate Summit: Lead or face destruction

Shafaq News – New York

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday that the world has failed to meet its commitment to curb global warming within internationally agreed limits.

Speaking before world leaders ahead of the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), Guterres noted that decades of “delay and denial” had led to “a failure to stay below the 1.5-degree threshold,” referring to the target set under the Paris Agreement to avoid the most severe impacts of climate change.

“This is a moral failure and a deadly neglect,” he added, urging governments to demonstrate leadership in addressing the climate crisis. “We can choose either to lead or to be led to destruction,” he warned.

Being among the countries most affected by climate change, Iraq has submitted its first Biennial Transparency Report (BTR) to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), fulfilling a key commitment under the Paris Agreement.

According to Jassim al-Falahi, Iraqi Undersecretary of the Minister of Environment, Iraq has experienced a significant rise in temperatures, increasing by 4-5 degrees Celsius above the global average over the past 50 years.