António Guterres

In recent months we have seen lifechanging technological advances in the capabilities and use of artificial intelligence. At the same time, we are witnessing new, life-threatening risks as a result of AI – from the propagation of disinformation, to mass surveillance, to the prospect of lethal autono

World Meteorological Organization says 2023 will be hottest year on record, leaving ‘trail of devastation and despair’

The UN Secretary-General’s Early Warnings for All Initiative (EW4All) is rapidly gaining ground. Action plans are being rolled out around the world to ensure that people know when dangerous weather is headed their way. Tajikistan has held a two-day national consultation, co-chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister and the UN Resident Coordinator in Tajikistan, and bringing together key stakeholders from state and international organizations, media and civil society. Ethiopia also held an inception workshop.

In a speech about climate change from April 4th of this year, UN General Secretary António Guterres lambasted “the empty pledges that put us on track to an unlivable world” and warned that “we are on a fast track to climate disaster” (1). Although stark, Guterres’ statements were not novel. Guterres has made similar remarks on previous occasions, as have other public figures, including Sir David Attenborough, who warned in 2018 that inaction on climate change could lead to “the collapse of our civilizations” (2). In their article, “World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency 2021”—which now has more than 14,700 signatories from 158 countries—William J. Ripple and colleagues state that climate change could “cause significant disruptions to ecosystems, society, and economies, potentially making large areas of Earth uninhabitable”

This week, the world broke the daily temperature record. This is yet another demonstration that climate change is out of control and one reason more for increased #ClimateAction ambition and justice. Emissions continue to grow while leaders persist in delaying the key measures needed to change this. This is the moment when we all need to assume our responsibilities. #climatechange

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres made clear Monday that securing a livable planet depends on stopping the "bottomless greed of the fossil fuel industry and its enablers."

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for strengthened international solidarity to address pressing global issues. "My objective is to make it clear that …we need cooperation, we need dialogue, and the present terrible geopolitical divides are not allowing it to happen. We need to change course," Mr. Guterres said in a wide-ranging interview with UN News ahead of the General Assembly's annual high-level week. The UN chief is just back from a solidarity visit to flood-ravaged Pakistan, where he called repeatedly for fast – and serious – to not only end what he called "climate carnage" but to provide more support for the countries that are the most-impacted but have done very little to cause the phenomenon.

António Guterres compares climate inaction to tobacco firms dismissing links between smoking and cancer

The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, on Monday issued a blistering critique of the world’s failure to rein in global warming, calling on countries to return every year to review their climate targets — not every five years, as the Paris climate agreement spells out. “Even if the recent pledges were clear and credible — and there are serious questions about some of them — we are still careening towards climate catastrophe,” he said at the opening ceremony of COP26, the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow.

Human activity is changing the climate in unprecedented and sometimes irreversible ways, a major UN scientific report has said. The landmark study warns of increasingly extreme heatwaves, droughts and flooding, and a key temperature limit being broken in just over a decade. The report "is a code red for humanity", says the UN chief.