Guterres uses his last UN climate summit to demand fossil fuel timelines

António Guterres has used his final climate summit as UN secretary-general to press governments for firm dates on quitting coal, oil and gas. Speaking at UN headquarters in New York on 23 September, in the middle of General Assembly week, he urged every country to produce a credible roadmap away from fossil fuels, with clear timelines attached.

His message mixed warning with optimism. Scientists now expect the world to overshoot, at least for a while, the 1.5C warming limit set in the 2015 Paris Agreement, which would bring worse climate disasters. Yet Guterres argued that renewables are now the cheapest, fastest and most secure source of new electricity almost everywhere, saying clean energy has gone “from alternative to unstoppable”.

What was on the table

• A Global Grids Accelerator focused on Africa and South-East Asia. The UN says more than 2,500 gigawatts of renewable projects around the world are stuck waiting for grid connections.
• A new phase of the UN Task Force on Critical Energy Transition Minerals, which will begin work in Guinea, Indonesia, Madagascar, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
• A continued push on Early Warnings for All, which aims to cover everyone on Earth with an early warning system by the end of 2027.

Some countries arrived with announcements of their own. AFP reported that Germany published its roadmap for phasing out fossil fuels hours before the summit, and that Britain pledged £330 million to the Global Environment Facility. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan struck a more cautious note, warning that climate plans which ignore social and economic realities are bound to fail.

Why it matters in Nigeria

Nigeria is named in the minerals initiative, which deals with the metals that go into batteries, solar panels and power lines, so it is worth watching what that work produces. For an oil-producing economy, the push for fossil fuel exit dates is also a real question about future revenue and jobs. And stronger early warning systems matter in a country where seasonal floods can upend lives within days.

Guterres, 77, steps down on 31 December after ten years in the job, so much of the follow-through will fall to whoever succeeds him.

What next: The next round of global climate talks, COP31, holds in Antalya, Turkey, in November, with Australia running the negotiations and Turkey hosting the event.