“I’m terribly worried”: UN chief on warming temperatures in SE Asia | Climate Conversations podcast

Intro you're listening to a CNA podcast Antonio gutiz the world's top Diplomat if you follow the news closely you'll have heard his words on the biggest issues in crisis facing the planet and when it comes to climate change he's the harbinger of all types of worldly Doom hello and welcome to climate conversations I'm Jack Bor coming to you from Bangkok hi to Le link T C's very own harbinger of climate catastrophe how are you hello Jack I'm excellent thank you considering we're all going to be boil and burn in a matter of time I'm doing pretty well well that's what you're here for bringing us all types of bad news but no no before we get to the interview that you did with Antonio gueras kind of take us behind the scenes a bit great to have him exclusively on our podcast how did you find him what was he like well he might be the world Diplomat but he's really a humanitarian at heart and sometimes he can be an angry humanitarian he can be clear about what is needed and how the world may have fallen short of resolving conflicts or addressing climate change for example he can bristle over fossil fuels get angry at injustices especially when it comes to vulnerable populations he can also Express displeasure conation even I've seen him do this over uh protracted conflicts and quarrels between nations like some of the super Powers but behind the scenes he is softspoken and actually very thoughtful I've interviewed him several times and he was always always very aware of who the people around him were he always remembers to shake hands for example with the TV crew and that's what he did this time as well he takes notice and I think that is telling and and it's what really defines his leadership style what about you jack what's your take on him uh obviously I've seen him from a have examined his speeches on many occasions the only time we were really in close quarters was at a restaurant actually in Egypt when when C was in ch shake and a friend and I fellow journalist and I were just having a sort of a private dinner and then in he came this kind of outdoor restaurant by the sea with his whole Entourage and they all kind of just nervously looked around at us and we just kind of carried on our meal but hardly a claim to fame when we have him on the podcast today so that's exciting yes it was quite an exciting exchange So speaking of exciting Did Antonio Guterres say this? exchanges it's quiz time of course it is Antonio guz themed naturally let's see how good your interview research was which of the following quotes is not attributed to Antonio guz we know that his speeches are pretty famous they're pretty fiery MH so tell me which one of these he did not say a Humanity has opened the Gates of Hell sounds very Lord of the Rings is B we are not only in danger we are the danger C the climate crisis is the greatest challenge Humanity has ever faced and D we are on the edge of the abyss and only urgent action can save us from a climate catastrophe oh wow all of these sound really familiar one of one of those made up they all sound like him though it's not as easy as it appears all right answer will be at the end of the podcast okay news time heing in between you're running around interviewing VIPs what's taken your attention Okay so Climate news you can use first up China apparently has cut its air pollution by 41% over the decade until 2022 yay and in so doing the average citizen there can live 2 years longer so according to a Bloomberg article which cited a study by the University of Chicago it's largely a result of the Chinese government's National air quality action plan that's basically a policy that followed some really bad smok situation back in 2013 I think you might remember this Jack now the policy included steps to reduce the number of cars on the road cut steel produ uction there ban Coal Fired power plants in some key urban areas and also to invest in more Renewables but the article also points out that despite this progress China's pollution levels are still five to six times higher than the world health organizations guidelines so there is still a long way to go and the goal for China now is to cut smog in major cities by 10% from 2020 Levels by the end of 2020 pipes pretty striking I think the outcomes here of this report but 2 years longer life expectancy for the average person and that really seems like something that's worth striving for and just strikes me that air pollution has such an impact on everybody's lives that I mean kudos for China for really making a big effort in this space but shows how much work they really had to do and it's clear there's a lot more to do as well yep absolutely now speaking of pollution generally it's also having an impact on a population that's closer to home that's right the orang LA people of the sea who called the MCA stain and Waters of Eastern Sumatra home cna's Nel radar did a story about how their way of life has been at risk and he profiles the orl of batam who are now seeing their lives and livelihoods on the line and it's not just due to pollution but also competition for fish and the effect effect of climate change which is making the sea angrier making the waves bigger and making winds much stronger as well and this hostile environment means they increasingly have to leave the ocean to find work on land and without formal education many of them end up Scavenging and picking trash just to get by so instead of living on boats as their people have for centuries most of them now live in stilled houses along the coasts and on small Islands so it's a glimpse of what climate change is doing to yet another vulnerable group of people even if they had little or no part to play in the enormous amount of greenhouse gas emissions that the world is coughing out yeah I'd encourage you to to have a read of it or watch it on YouTube and part of this trend that we're seeing right throughout coastal areas of sea or formerly sea dwelling communities that now being forced to upend the way that they've traditionally lived okay let's go to our main story this [Music] week in 2017 the former prime minister of Portugal Antonio guz ascended to the un's top job since then for all of us following the biggest stories on the news agenda his words emphasizing the gravity and urgency of issues have been a Mainstay and climate change has been a key Focus for for him before coming to Asia he made a stop in the Pacific region for the first time in about 5 years visiting Tonga and making some characteristically strong remarks about sea level rise in particular I wrote an analysis piece that you can read at CNA about the significance of that trip and his call for an SOS or save our seas and why sea level rise is a particular policy area of attention for both him and Regional leaders now that coincided as well with a new report about the threat of melting ice how it will impact low-lying mega cities and something that all of us should pay attention to then he was in Singapore leeling why was he here what was on his agenda I think it was part of his whole Asia visit you mentioned he visited Tonga he was also in Samoa um in the Pacific and then he headed here in his first official visit as un Secretary General to meet with government officials here in Singapore now as you said earlier a big priority area was to draw Global attention to the impact that climate change is having on communities here not just rising sea levels on the Pacific but the warming conditions in Asia as well and this was largely the theme of our conversation in this interview yeah I think it's clear that guz is really on a supercharge tour right now and designed to ramp up energy political dialogue in the climate space and build moment momentum towards cop 29 in aaban later in November and as well the the G20 Summit is happening in the same month that's right and that's when of course the world's largest economies meet so we can expect a lot more calls to action to phase out fossil fuels cough up climate financing that's been promised but largely undispersed more commitments and follow-throughs especially when it comes to helping developing nations fight climate change and adapt to its impacts I started off my conversation my interview with the Secretary General by talking about how we're all feeling the heat here in Asia in Singapore alone daily temperatures are projected to increase by up to 5° C by the end of the century and Jack you and I have talked about this before Asia is warming at a faster rate than the global average so I asked him how worried he was about what all of this will do to countries in Southeast Asia In conversation with Antonio Guterres well I'm terribly worried but we need to avoid that situation we need to make sure that temperatures do not rise more than 1.5° until the end of the century in relation to Historic values and that means that we need to reverse the present Trends in which emissions are still growing and we need to ask countries especially the G20 countries the great polluters 80% of the greenhouse gases come from the G20 one must take the G20 countries developed countries emerging economies that it's time to start drastically reducing the emissions it's time to start the process to phase out fossil fuels and it's time to understand that we need to rescue our planet and that the only way to rescue our planet is exactly to avoid the things that you are describing if temperatures rise 2 3 4° we will witness the destruction of large parts of human life conditions in different areas of the world you've already visited at saboa and Tonga what did you hear and see that you were most alarmed by in terms of the impact from rising sea levels sea level rise is first of all at uh double than what it was uh in the '90s and it's accelerating I think the rate of increase is unprecedented in the last 3,000 years and drama is that we are coming close to a Tipping Point where it can accelerate much more if for instance we would have the 2° as limit it would be inevitable to have the long-term melting of Greenland and the long-term melting of uh West antara but an immediate acceleration of the melting of these two gigantic ice masses which would mean a dramatic acceleration of the rise of the sea level and the consequences for castal areas would be devastating devastating for the Pacific Islands where I was but devastating for many of the big cities in the world the majority of population of the world is by the Sea cities like Shanghai Lagos Bangkok New York New York yeah all these cities are threatened if we do not avoid those stepping points and if you do not avoid a dramatic acceleration of sea level rise in the next few years and decades m now in Tonga you issued a global SOS on the rising sea levels in the Pacific who do you hope will answer your call or who should answer your SOS the big emits as I said those that are dramatically impacting on climate the fossil fuel companies many of them but above all the countries themselves that uh need to have plans and projects to reduce emissions to put the price on carbon uh to as I said have plans to face out fossil fuels uh to uh avoid deforestation uh to guarantee an adequate use of land there are so many things to decarbonize the industry the Transportation uh many other sectors I mean everything that needs to be done in order to make sure that we stop the present growth of emissions and we drastically reverse it right but this message that it's time to phasee out fossil fuels it's time to take more climate action it's not new and you've used some pretty dramatic language uh to try and Galvanize deeper climate action right you said that we uh need an exit ramp of the highway to climate hell you said we've gone from global warming to Exit ramp off the highway of "climate hell" Global boiling have any of these warnings Garner the kind of real change that you want well we are seeing a lot of changes we are seeing not enough change but we are seeing a lot of changes look at the huge increase in renewable energy that we are witnessing the biggest increase ever in any form of energy especially the production of electricity look at electric cars I mean in China now one in each two electric cars that are sold one of each two cars that are sold is electric look how science is evolving so quickly so the question is not the instruments available science available the question is political will the only thing we need is the political will that is needed to use the instruments we already have to make sure that we reverse the present Trend to use those expressions that you mentioned that would lead to Hell on Earth now I want to ask you a question about the association of Southeast Asian Nations you have called on aian to help end the global climate gridlock saying it's a moral it's its moral authority to do so what do you mean by that especially given how this region faces its own climate changes and its own challenges in decarbonizing this is one of the areas that will be more dramatically impacted by climate change yes and it's not an area that is contributing decisively to climate change so as an area that is suffering more than many others because of the impacts of climate change and suffer even more if things go on as they are this region has a huge moral authority to tell the polluters stop okay one last short question what can a small country like Singapore do to be a bigger part of the solution you met with some of the government officials during this trip how can Singapore play a bigger part now Singapore plays an extremely important role in the United Nations Singapore is one of the most active countries in the United Nations Singapore was decisive in the reforms that we have been able to introduce Singapore is decisive in our climate campaign Singapore is the is in the preparation of the summit of the future in relation to the governance of artificial intelligence in the relation to the reform of International Financial architecture in relation to a new agenda for peace I mean Singapore has been in the front line of the voice of reason and um singap presides The Forum of small states and based on that Singapore has been able to mobilize the majority of the countries small states but each country one vote the majority of the countries of the United Nations in order to make the United Nations a strong instrument to protect the planet and to create more equity and Justice in the relations among countries and among people okay quiz time questions and options again for you do you want all the options again I think we should go through them yes let's do it which of the following quotes is not attributed to Antonio guz a Humanity has opened the gates of hell this one I know I think he said it uh last September at the climate action Summit I'm 65% sure of it it sounds very familiar that's not that sure 65 okay all right B we are not only in danger we are the danger this he definitely said I remember reading this just last week the whole quote is even more dramatic let me pull it up for you just a second in the case of climate we are not the dinosaurs we are the meteor we are not only in danger we are the danger but we are also the solution Okay C the climate crisis is the greatest challenge Humanity has ever faced okay it sounds like him and I would go for this if not for the next quote which I'm kind of sure he also said so D we are on the edge of the abyss and only urgent action can save us from a climate catastrophe yeah I'm pretty sure I can hear him say the word Abyss in my head I'm I'm pretty sure I said that but I mean I'm pretty sure I heard that but okay so definitely a definitely B cuz I'm sure about those two climate crisis is the greatest challenge Humanity has ever faced that's like a fact anybody could have said that okay I'm going to go with a b and d you got it correct c c drag directly from the UN website just not anybody yeah it's just from the UN website it's not from him you you speak the language of Antonio guz or his speech writers but yeah all right that's it for climate conversations thanks as always for joining us we'll be back next week with fresh and he means episode and until next week I'm leling tan and I'm Jack B thanks as always to the team that put together this episode Tiffany Ang janani jari crispina Robert and say win