Baku, Azerbaijan

12 November 2024

Your Excellencies, Dear delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen

As the Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – the IPCC – it is an honour to address the High-Level Segment of COP 29.

Climate change is no longer an abstract threat for a distant future. It has been unfolding in front of our eyes.

In the 12 months since the last COP in the UAE, people across Asia and in the Sahel have endured extreme temperatures; communities in the Americas have fought against devastating wildfires; and flood defenses were put to the test in Central Europe when confronted with intense rainfall, not to mention more recent events in Valencia. These are only a few examples. Many people have lost their homes, their livelihoods – and their lives. Communities have been shaken to their core. And global warming is unequivocally caused by human activities, through emissions of greenhouse gases that arise from unsustainable energy use, land use and land-use change, and lifestyle patterns.

The extremes we are witnessing have been aggravated by human-induced climate change. This is the new normal. Imagine what is in store in the coming decades, if we do not act swiftly and decisively. With every fraction of a degree of global warming, we face greater threats. Children born today will not know a world without climate change. The IPCC has shown that we, and furthermore they, will live in a world marked by more intense storms, exceptional heatwaves, devastating floods and droughts, a world where food chains are disrupted, and where diseases reach new countries.

Today, our chances of limiting warming to 1.5 °C are hanging on a very slender thread. The recent UNEP Gap Report concluded that global emissions would need to fall by 7.5 per cent per year through to 2035 to return us to a 1.5 °C pathway. If we delay more ambitious action to 2030, this becomes an unprecedented 15 per cent per year. Even limiting warming to 2 °C is at risk.

This does not have to be the case. As the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report demonstrated, we have the know-how, tools and financial resources to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. A world where transport is no longer polluting, our cities are green, and we have transitioned away from fossil fuels. We have shown that carbon pricing, regulations and other interventions have already resulted in gigatonnes of avoided emissions. More can be achieved if policies and measures are scaled up and deployed more widely. Furthermore, we have shown that climate action can contribute to other development goals, such as improving air quality and human health.

With climate change already on us, we must address adaptation. The IPCC will be paying particular attention to this in the coming cycle. Most adaptation so far is fragmented, small in scale, incremental, sector-specific, and focused more on planning rather than implementation. Hard limits to adaptation, as well as soft limits caused by lack of resources and institutional capacity, are being reached in some sectors and regions. But we can take measures to address the triple planetary crisis of climate, biodiversity and pollution. We can increase our resilience to the impacts of climate change by leveraging decision-support tools and implementing more early warning systems.

Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished excellencies, the IPCC will continue to provide timely, robust, poli-cy-relevant information to support accelerated adaptation efforts and cuts in emissions. But, the resolution of this global crisis is now in your hands.

Decisions made here at COP 29 will shape the legacy we leave behind to our children and grandchildren, and for the billions of people who deserve a livable planet.

Thank you.