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Fossil fuel ‘addiction’ to blame for climate crisis: UN chief

Geneva, Sep 13 (EFE).- Human beings’ “addiction” to fossil fuels is to blame for the climate crisis, United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday.

“Each year we double-down on this fossil fuel addiction, even as the symptoms get rapidly worse,” the UN chief said following the publication of a multi-agency report coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) that warned the world is “heading in the wrong direction”.

According to the United Science report, for warming to be limited to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels — the target set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement — efforts need to increase sevenfold as greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise to record highs.

The report added that the past seven years have been the warmest ever recorded and warned that as global warming increases, “tipping points” in the climate system cannot be ruled out.

Guterres said recent extreme weather events around the world were going “from bad to worse” and breaking records with “alarming frequency”.

“There is nothing natural about the new scale of these disasters. They are the price of humanity’s fossil fuel addiction,” the Portuguese diplomat added.

The United Science report said that massive cities are responsible for up to 70% of human-caused emissions and also the most likely to face increasing socio-economic impacts of climate change.

“The science is clear – urgent action is needed to mitigate emissions and adapt to the changing climate,” the report said. EFE

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