Guterres: Global carbon dioxide emissions reached record high in 2025

In 2025, global carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere reached record highs, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said at the COP31 leaderschr("39") summit, Olaylar informs.

He said the climate crisis was accelerating faster than the world could respond, with temperature records continuing to be broken and the past four years ranking as the hottest on record. He added that climate disasters were causing severe damage to human lives and the global economy, warning that the world was heading towards "mutually assured destruction."

Guterres recalled that the Paris Agreement had set the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Although scientific assessments now suggest that exceeding this threshold is inevitable, he said the scale and duration of the overshoot could still be influenced.

The UN chief outlined three key lessons from recent decades.

The first was that rapid transformation was possible. He noted that solar power had significantly increased its share of global electricity generation, meeting nearly three-quarters of the growth in worldwide electricity demand, while electric vehicles were becoming increasingly widespread.

The second lesson was that dependence on fossil fuels increased instability. Guterres pointed out that three-quarters of the worldchr("39")s population lived in countries that imported fossil fuels, leaving them vulnerable to price shocks. He said recent conflicts had clearly demonstrated that this dependence led to chronic instability and a sharp worsening of the cost-of-living crisis.

The third lesson, he said, was that global efforts to combat climate change were not progressing fast enough. According to Guterres, emissions needed to be reduced by approximately 6% annually, while current national plans accounted for only one-third of the required reductions.

He also stressed the need to increase climate finance for developing countries, noting that they received less than one-fifth of global investment in clean energy despite being home to nearly two-thirds of the worldchr("39")s population, excluding China.