ANTALYA (TÜRKİYE): UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that the climate crisis is advancing faster than global efforts to address it, urging world leaders to accelerate climate action and strengthen international cooperation.
“Our first climate duty is to tell the truth. The brutal truth is that the climate crisis is outrunning us,” Guterres said while addressing the COP31 Leaders’ Summit in Antalya on Wednesday.
Warning of the worsening climate situation, he said global greenhouse gas emissions reached record levels in 2025, while temperature records continued to be broken. He also noted that the past four years had been the hottest on record and criticized fossil fuel companies for continuing to profit at the expense of the planet.
According to Guterres, climate-related disasters are increasingly devastating lives, livelihoods and economies worldwide, pushing the planet towards a dangerous path of mutually assured destruction.
However, he emphasized that scientific evidence does not call for surrender but demands stronger and more determined action.
“We have the power to determine how high, how long and how devastating that overshoot will be,” he said, stressing that global warming beyond the 1.5-degree Celsius threshold must remain temporary rather than becoming a permanent reality.
Recalling the Paris Agreement’s target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, Guterres acknowledged that temporarily exceeding the threshold had become inevitable. However, he maintained that the extent and duration of the overshoot could still be limited through ambitious climate policies and decisive leadership.
Highlighting progress in renewable energy and electric vehicle adoption, he said the transition towards cleaner energy was gaining momentum, although current global efforts remained insufficient. He called for annual reductions in global emissions of around six percent and an orderly and equitable transition away from fossil fuels.
Guterres identified climate justice as one of the defining challenges of the coming decade, urging developed countries to provide adequate, affordable and accessible financial support to vulnerable nations for climate adaptation and addressing loss and damage.
He called on developed countries to deliver at least USD 300 billion annually by 2035, substantially increase adaptation financing and mobilize the broader USD 1.3 trillion climate finance target. He also urged donors to replenish the Green Climate Fund and the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage.
Emphasizing the principle that polluters must pay, Guterres pointed out that the world’s nine largest oil companies had earned USD 95 billion in profits in the previous quarter alone, while the Loss and Damage Fund had received only around USD 600 million.
He urged governments to impose taxes on windfall profits earned by fossil fuel companies and channel the resources towards supporting countries most vulnerable to climate change.
He further called for accelerated investment in renewable energy, a phase-down of unabated coal power, reductions in methane emissions, stronger nature conservation measures and expanded early warning systems to protect communities from climate-related disasters.
Concluding his remarks, Guterres stressed the importance of stronger international solidarity and cooperation, saying that climate negotiations must translate into tangible action on the ground. He warned that the world was running out of time to prevent increasingly severe and irreversible climate impacts.
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