COP26: We must stop treating the earth like toilet, UN tells world leaders

Antonio Guterres, United Nations secretary-general, has called on world leaders to make serious efforts towards stemming the tide of climate change.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the UN climate change conference on Monday, Guterres said the addiction to fossil fuel is pushing humanity to the brink.

He said the past few years have been the hottest on record and would be more disastrous if not stopped. 

“We face a tough choice, either we stop it or it stops us and it is time to say enough — enough of brutalising biodiversity, enough of killing ourselves with carbon, enough of treating nature like a toilet, enough of drilling and mining our way deeper, we are digging our own graves,” he said. 

He said that despite ambitious pledges, the world is still heading towards a climate catastrophe, adding that reports which show that the world is on track to turning the tide are just an “illusion”.

“Recent climate announcements might give the impression that we are on track to turning things around, this is an illusion,” he said.

“The last published report on national determined contributions show that they will still condemn the world to a calamitous 2.7 degrees increase.

“And even if the recent pledges were clear and credible, and there are still serious questions about some of them, we are still leaning towards climate catastrophe.”

Guterres encouraged world leaders to invest in net-zero economies that would help to build sustainability and resilience. 

“Excellencies, we face a moment of truth, we are in fact approaching tipping points that will trigger escalating feedback loops of global heating,” he said.

“But investing in the net-zero climate-resilient economy will create feedback loops of its own, virtual circles of sustainable growth, jobs and opportunities.”