The world has fallen short of its pledge to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) under the 2015 Paris Agreement, a failure U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday condemned as “a moral failure” and “deadly negligence.”
Guterres said it is "inevitable" that the 1.5-degree threshold will be breached by the early 2030s due to humanity's continued reliance on fossil fuels.
"Every fraction of a degree higher means more hunger, more displacement, more economic hardship, and more lives and ecosystems lost," he said in Belém, Brazil, a city in the Amazon rainforest hosting the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP30).
He demanded that governments speed up the renewable energy transition and stop the approval of "new coal plants and new oil and gas exploration or expansion."
He also urged governments to honor their pledge to halt global deforestation by 2030, describing the current response to the climate crisis as "fall far short of what is needed."
Guterres said the world is heading toward 2.8 degrees of warming this century under current policies. Yet he insisted the Paris target remains achievable if countries act decisively.
"Let us be clear: the 1.5 degree limit is a red line for humanity," he said. But, Guterres added, breaching it could yet amount to "temporary overshoot" that could then come back down.
"If we act now, at great speed and scale, we can make the overshoot as small, as short, and as safe as possible - and bring temperatures back below 1.5 degrees before the end of the century."
He blasted governments for continuing to channel vast subsidies into the oil, gas and coal industries, saying billions were being spent "on lobbying, deceiving the public and obstructing progress."
Gutterres spoke as world leaders arrived for a summit in Belém on Thursday and Friday. Following their departure, the COP30 negotiations will officially get underway on Monday.
European leaders, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, are among those attending. Senior officials from the European Union and the United Nations will also be present.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he hopes the two-week event will produce tangible results. More than 70,000 participants from about 200 countries are expected.
The political backdrop is challenging: wars, economic uncertainty and fiscal strains are overshadowing climate efforts, while the United States under Donald Trump continues to expand its fossil fuel agenda. Washington will not send a high-level delegation to COP30.
On Thursday, leaders are set to launch a multibillion-dollar fund to protect tropical forests - the "green lungs” of the planet - and issue a joint call for stronger global wildfire management.
The summit will also promote Brazil’s sustainable fuels initiative, which aims to quadruple production and use by 2035, and unveil a declaration linking efforts to combat hunger and poverty with climate protection.
According to the WWF, nearly 7 million hectares of primary forest were lost in 2024 alone, despite a 2019 pledge by 140 countries to end deforestation by the end of this decade.
Ten years after the Paris Agreement, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva urged the international community not to abandon its climate targets, warning of severe human and material losses if global warming is not contained.
"The COP30 will be the COP of truth," Lula told the leaders gathered in Belém. He noted that it was the first time a COP summit was being held in the Amazon - "the greatest symbol of the environmental cause," home to thousands of species of plants and animals.
Lula called for greater "courage and determination" in tackling global warming. "It is time to take the warnings of science seriously," he said, adding that the climate crisis can only be solved through global justice.
"Climate justice is an ally in the fight against hunger and poverty," the leftist politician said.
Hosting COP30 in the Amazon, Lula said, underscores Brazil's effort to balance economic development with environmental protection. "The people of the Amazon are now rightly asking what the rest of the world is doing to prevent the collapse of their home," he said.
