With wildfires continuing to wreak havoc across France, Spain and other parts of Europe, UN Climate Change executive secretary Simon Stiell has said that escalating extreme weather warrants further action to curb the use of fossil fuels.
“The climate alarm is blaring, from every direction,” Stiell commented in a statement posted on the UN Climate Change website. “Around the world, climate-driven disasters are reaching nightmare proportions, as the costs of humanity’s addiction to burning coal, oil and gas keep spiraling upwards.”
‘Brutal’ heatwaves
The record-breaking wildfires of the past two weeks follow on from a period of “brutal” heatwaves across Europe, Stiell added, illustrating the level to which climate change is increasing pressure on regional infrastructure and local economies.
“With the mercury set to soar again this week, the awful costs of this climate crisis – both human and economic – are now reaching national emergency levels,” he said.
In North Africa too, where temperatures are nearing 49°C, lives and livelihoods have been placed in “great jeopardy”, Stiell added, while storms in Chile and record-breaking heat in Japan are putting societies under “severe strain”.
“These spiralling disasters are now the lived reality for billions in a world getting rapidly hotter, as humanity moves too slowly from fossil fuels to clean energy and to protect forests,” Stiell commented.
“The science on the cause is unequivocal: global heating, driven by humanity burning colossal amounts of coal, oil and gas, is making protracted heatwaves, severe floods and violent mega-storms more frequent, more intense and more costly.”
Fossil fuels
As he noted, reducing dependence on fossil fuels represents an essential path forward, while more effort needs to be made to protect the communities feeling the effects of climate change.
“What needs to be done is equally clear: leave coal, oil and gas behind faster, scale up renewables, and protect people where the impacts are already hitting hardest,” said Stiell. “Many vulnerable countries on the frontlines need support to move at the speed and scale this crisis demands.” Read more here.
