The UN Secretary General Urges Public Pressure To Address the Climate ‘Emergency’

Speaker 1: 00:00 Climate change is of course an international problem. In fact, the UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez calls it a global emergency for this week's covering climate series. Mark Phillips of CBS News and Mark Hurts Guard of the nation spoke with Secretary General Gutierrez. Here's that interview, Speaker 2: 00:19 Mr Secretary General, thank you for making this time for the interview with the covering climate now consortium of news outlets around the world. You've been working very hard on the climate problem, calling it an emergency. People all over the world are scared, they want action, but you have called the special climate action summit next Monday because their governments are not delivering that action, at least not yet. What is the one thing that people listening to this interview right now can do to get their governments to lift their game, to act like this is the emergency that you say it is? Well, first the general public can mobilize Speaker 3: 01:01 in different ways. Uh, we have seen the youth with the fantastic leadership in this regard. Uh, we see, uh, the civil society, the nongovernmental organizations, we see the business community cities, regions that more and more, uh, not only put pressure on their governments for climate action. And we have seen that already in elections in different parts of the world, namely in Europe in the last, uh, European elections. But they are also themselves assuming climate action. We see cities reducing emissions, we see businesses, um, uh, also reducing their emissions. We see asset managers divesting from coal or from fossil fuels. I see the whole of the society being more and more engaged in crime detection. And what I want is to have the whole of society putting pressure on government to make governments understand they need to run faster because we are losing the race. We're losing the races. Speaker 3: 01:58 Why you call it an emergency, right? Yes. I mean, if you see the way, uh, uh, we, the multiplication, uh, of, uh, natural disasters each time more intense with more devastating consequences. I just came from The Bahamas. It is appalling to see what I've seen total destruction drought in Africa. That is not only a problem for the populations and the problem for their wellbeing and forcing people to move, it's also more and more something that supports conflict. And terrorism. CEO is a good example of that. You see glaciers melting, you see corals bleaching, you see the food chains being put into question. Um, and uh, clearly, uh, as we have a, the highest temperatures ever, July was the hottest months. Uh, however this five years will be the hottest five years in record. We see the rising level of the ocean that are taking place, the highest concentrations ever of CO2 in the atmosphere to go back three to 5 million years to the same levels of seal too. Speaker 3: 03:00 And that the time water level was 10 to 20 meters higher than what it is today. So we are really dealing with a very dramatic threat, not only to the future of the planet but to the planet. Today. You say that you have to get people in government to listen to the arguments that you, that you make such as the one you just did. But you've also just listed a few minutes ago, a whole range of dire consequences that we're already seeing. Hottest years on record record rates of melting of polar ice caps, all of the other consequences, severe storms that this is three years after the Paris accords were agreed. Are you facing a situation of desperation now? Is that why you've had to call this conference? Because the Paris accords, there is no evidence at this point that they are actually producing the results that we all hoped they would. Speaker 3: 03:49 I'm not desperate. I am hopeful because I see a lot of movement in societies and I see more and more pressure being put in relation to governments. If you look at the most recent poll in the United States, you will see that the overwhelming majority of American citizens now can see the climate change to be a serious threat and can see that the government needs to act inhalation to that government. And that is the reason the government, it's not acting. But that is the reason why I am hopeful. I mean governments always follow public opinion everywhere in the world sooner or later. And so we need to stay the course. We need to keep telling the truth to people and be confident that a political system, especially democratic policing systems will in the end sooner or later deliver according to the needs that the population fields do. Speaker 3: 04:35 You still have hope of convincing the Trump administration of the what you would see as the error of its ways and its approach to climate change and in withdrawing from the Internet. Hope is the thing that too we should never lose but in any case I think there is a work to be done with the civil society, with the business community, with the assets owners, with the states, with the cities and that work is also producing results that are very important that the fact is though that even with the pledges for the diminishing of greenhouse gas production that that were made at Paris, much of none of that would bring the heating levels of the climate down to the desired 1.5% I think three, three degrees reskill increasing emissions. We are still increasing initials even after why we need to change the course to reverse the trend even after Paris, even after Paris. Speaker 3: 05:29 And how much of a problem is it that is Washington's position? Are you hearing other countries say, well if they won't, why should we? No, I don't think that is the problem anymore. I think now, clearly, uh, and I was in Katovich it was a difficult moment as you know, to get Avicii was essential to implement the Paris agreement. And in the end it was possible to have everybody on board, including by the way, the United States delegation. My feeling is more and more that countries understand that they cannot wait for the neighbor. They need to act by themselves because the risk is a, is a global risk. It's not a risk for one country or another. So nobody is, in my opinion, able to escape. And so my feeling is that independently of what one country decides other countries will be able to more and more commit to the Paris agreement and to the increased ambition that we need for the Paris agreement to be a reality. Speaker 3: 06:27 Simple question is Paris failed? Not Because, um, more and more countries are now taking measures that will reverse these trends. If you look at what happened in the European Union recently, only three countries opposed the um, the strategy to have carbon neutrality in 2050. And I believe that even that will be overcome. Uh, uh, if you look at, uh, all solar energies growing, uh, in countries like India or China, it's absolutely remarkable. If you see how even countries in the small island development states are themselves taking measures to reduce emissions, even if their contribution is ridiculous, you feel that there is a new wind devote that is blowing. So I think we are getting to the top and you'll start coming down soon. Speaker 4: 07:20 Is it time to, if not give up, at least face the reality that these targets are not going to be met. There's no indication so far that the targets will be met and that the efforts of organizations like the UN should be more directed toward adapting to the world. We're more likely to face and if not give up at least lessen the effort and redirect it Speaker 3: 07:42 both. We need to support adaptation and support, specially the cancers that are in the frontline of the negative impacts. But what the science tells us today is that these targets are still reachable, but that needs profound changes in the way we produce food in the way we power our economies, in the way we organize our cities, it, the way we produce energy. Um, and these is the kind of transformational changes that I feel are needed. And I feel that more and more people, companies, cities, and governments, uh, understanding that needs to be done. Speaker 4: 08:22 This story is part of covering climate now a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story.