Secretary-General’s Press Conference on Extreme Heat

Secretary-General: It’s summertime. But the living is no longer easy.

This has been a week of unprecedented heat. First, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service declared Sunday July 21st as the hottest day on record. Then on Monday July 22nd, the mercury climbed even higher.

And now we have just received preliminary data indicating that Tuesday July 23rd was in the same range.

In other words, this past Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were the three hottest days on record.

But let’s face facts: extreme temperatures are no longer a one day, one week or one month phenomenon.

If there is one thing that unites our divided world, it’s that we’re all increasingly feeling the heat.

Earth is becoming hotter and more dangerous for everyone, everywhere.

Billions of people are facing an extreme heat epidemic -- wilting under increasingly deadly heatwaves, with temperatures topping 50 degrees Celsius around the world. That’s 122 degrees Fahrenheit. And halfway to boiling.

This year, we’ve seen a deadly heatwave hit the Sahel – with spiking hospitalisations and deaths.

And broken temperature records across the United States – reportedly placing 120 million people under heat advisory warnings.

Scorching conditions have killed 1,300 pilgrims during Haj;

Shut down tourist attractions in Europe’s sweatbox cities;

And closed schools across Asia and Africa – impacting more than 80 million children.

Of course, summer heat is as old as the hills.

But the World Meteorological Organization, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and others have documented a rapid rise in the scale, intensity, frequency and duration of extreme-heat events.

And it comes against a background of ever-rising temperatures – with June officially the 13th consecutive month to break global temperature records.

Extreme heat is increasingly tearing through economies, widening inequalities, undermining the Sustainable Development Goals and killing people.

Heat is estimated to kill almost half a million people a year, that’s about 30 times more than tropical cyclones.

We know what is driving it: fossil fuel-charged, human-induced climate change.

And we know it’s going to get worse.

Extreme heat is the new abnormal.

But the good news is we can save lives and limit its impact.

Today, we are launching a global call to action with four areas of focus.

First, caring for the most vulnerable.

Crippling heat is everywhere – but it doesn’t affect everyone equally.

Those most at risk when the mercury soars include the urban poor. Pregnant women. People with disabilities. Older people. The very young, the sick, the displaced, and the impoverished – who often live in substandard housing without access to cooling.

For example, heat-related deaths for people over 65 years of age increased around 85 percent in 20 years.

UNICEF tells us that almost 25 per cent of all children today are exposed to frequent heatwaves. By 2050, that could rise to virtually 100 per cent.

And the number of urban poor living in extreme heat could rise 700 per cent.

Extreme heat amplifies inequality, inflames food insecurity, and pushes people further into poverty.

We must respond by massively increasing access to low-carbon cooling; expanding passive cooling – such as natural solutions and urban design; and cleaning up cooling technologies while boosting their efficiency.

The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that, together, these measures could protect 3.5 billion people by 2050, while slashing emissions and saving consumers $1 trillion a year.

It’s also vital to boost protection for the most vulnerable – in line with the Early Warning Systems for All initiative.

The World Health Organization and World Meteorological Organization estimate that scaling-up heat health-warning systems in 57 countries alone could save almost 100,000 lives a year.

Finance to help safeguard communities from climate chaos is essential. And I urge developed countries to honour their promises, and show how they will close the gaping adaptation finance gap.

Second, we must step up protections for workers.

A new report from the International Labour Organization – being released today – warns that over 70 per cent of the global workforce – 2.4 billion people – are now at high risk of extreme heat.

In Asia and the Pacific, three in four workers are now exposed to extreme heat. More than eight out of ten in Arab States, more than nine out of ten in Africa.

Meanwhile, the Europe and Central Asia region has the most rapidly increasing workforce exposure to excessive heat.

And the Americas is seeing the most rapidly increasing heat-related occupational injuries.

All of this is having a profound impact on people and the economy.

Excessive heat is the cause of almost 23 million workplace injuries worldwide.

And as daily temperatures rise above 34°C – or 93.2°F – labour productivity drops by 50%.

Heat stress at work is projected to cost the global economy $2.4 trillion by 2030. Up from $280 billion in the mid-1990s.

We need measures to protect workers, grounded in human rights.

And we must ensure that laws and regulations reflect the reality of extreme heat today – and are enforced.

Third, we must massively boost the resilience of economies and societies using data and science.

Extreme heat impacts almost every area:

Infrastructure buckles, crops fail, and pressure piles on water supplies, health systems and electricity grids.

Cities are a particular worry – they are heating up at twice the global average.

Countries, cities, and sectors need comprehensive, tailored Heat Action Plans, based on the best science and data.

And we need a concerted effort to heatproof economies, critical sectors, and the built environment.

Finally, I want to make one over-arching point.

Today, our focus is on the impact of extreme heat. But let’s not forget that there are many other devastating symptoms of the climate crisis: Ever-more fierce hurricanes. Floods. Droughts. Wildfires. Rising sea levels. The list goes on.

To tackle all these symptoms, we need to fight the disease.

The disease is the madness of incinerating our only home.

The disease is the addiction to fossil fuels.

The disease is climate inaction.

Leaders across the board must wake up and step up.

That means governments – especially G20 countries – as well as the private sector, cities and regions.

They must act as though our future depends on it – because it does.

All countries must deliver by next year nationally determined contributions – or national climate action plans – aligned to limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The International Energy Agency has shown that fossil fuel expansion and new coal plants are inconsistent with meeting that limit.

I must call out the flood of fossil fuel expansion we are seeing in some of the world’s wealthiest countries. In signing such a surge of new oil and gas licenses, they are signing away our future.

The leadership of those with the greatest capabilities and capacities is essential.

Countries must phase-out fossil fuels – fast and fairly.

They must end new coal projects.

The G20 must shift fossil fuel subsidies to renewables and support vulnerable countries and communities.

And national climate action plans must show how each country will contribute to the global goals agreed at COP28 to triple the world’s renewables capacity, and end deforestation – by 2030.

They must also cut global consumption and production of fossil fuels by thirty percent in the same timeframe.

And we need similar 1.5-aligned transition plans from business, the financial sector, cities and regions – following the recommendations of my High-Level Expert Group on Net Zero.

Climate action also requires finance action.

That includes countries coming together for a strong finance outcome from COP29; progress on innovative sources of finance; drastically boosting the lending capacity of multilateral development banks to help developing countries tackle the climate crisis; and wealthier countries making good on all their climate finance commitments.

The message is clear: the heat is on.

Extreme heat is having an extreme impact on people and planet.

The world must rise to the challenge of rising temperatures.

Thank you.

[END ]

QUESTION AND ANSWERS:

 

Question: Mr. Secretary-General, thank you very much on behalf of the United Nations Correspondents Association for doing this briefing. For those watching, my name is Edith Lederer from the Associated Press. Given the years, even decades of warnings by the United Nations, its agencies and scientists that climate action has turned out to be glacially slow- and now you're talking about treating the damage- how frustrated are you? How preventable were these heat records? And how optimistic are you that, this time, the world's nations will listen? And if I may, on a completely different subject, what is your assessment of the current humanitarian situation in Gaza?

 

Secretary-General: Well, frustration is not a good feeling because it inhibits action. So, I'm not frustrated. I'm determined to turn things around and to do everything I can for those that have the decision capacity to do so to effectively turn things around. And we must recognize that a lot is being done. The increase of renewable energy we are witnessing is the fastest increase of energy production by any means in history. We see electric cars multiplying in several countries. Many things are being done, but too little, too late. The problem is that climate change is running faster than all the measures that are now being put in place to fight it. And that is why it is important to understand that we need a huge acceleration of all the dimensions of climate action. And you ask me, why should it happen now? I think what I explained about heat is probably the best answer. In the beginning, climate change was not being felt by the majority of the population, or, at least, by the majority of the population that have a huge contribution to decision-making systems. But now with what we are witnessing about heat waves and what we are witnessing about impacts in public health, what we are witnessing in relation to a number of natural disasters that are impacting the richest countries in the world - I've just been informed of terrible wildfires in Jasper, Canada - now, the heat is being felt by those that have decision-making capacity. And that is my hope. 

 

Question: And on Gaza?

 

Secretary-General: No, I'm not finished. [Laughter] Don't worry. I was not trying to escape. The humanitarian situation in Gaza is a total disaster. And it is a total disaster because it's the combination of two things. First, a military campaign that has the highest level of killing and destruction that I remember in any other military campaign since I am Secretary-General, anywhere in the world. And the military campaign, that has a certain chaotic nature. First, the north was attacked. People were told to go to the south. Then the centre was attacked and people was also told to go to the south. But all of a sudden, they had to go back to the north, because apparently the problem was not solved. Then they went to the south, but all of a sudden, they went to the centre again, because also apparently the problem in the centre was not solved. And anytime people were told to move to somewhere else and people were moving from place to place in search of a safety that doesn't exist in any place. The second reason is because the level of humanitarian aid is totally out of proportion with the needs. First of all, we are in a situation of total lawlessness, a situation where the law and order has completely disappeared. Nobody is in charge of security anywhere in the area of Gaza. So, we see convoys looted at any moment. And worst, we had in three successive days, three UN convoys that were hit by fire - on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. On Sunday, the bullets were lost. But on Monday and Tuesday, five bullets and four bullets penetrated our vehicles and they were shot by the Israeli military. Even if deconflicting had been established and there were all reasons to suppose that those convoys could be moving in safely. So, with total insecurity, total lawlessness, and then all the obstacles of a permanent negotiation in which difficulty after difficulty is put in relation to security equipment, in relation to the so-called dual-use items and all other things that are needed for an effective humanitarian aid, with the combination of these obstacles, with the total insecurity in the country, humanitarian aid is far from being sufficient. And let's not also forget that our humanitarian appeal is only 36 per cent funded. So, the combination of these two factors, the way the military operations are conducted and the dramatic circumstances in which humanitarian aid is distributed create a very dramatic humanitarian situation.

 

Question: Kristen Saloomey from Al Jazeera. Thank you so much, Secretary-General. Given the attacks on UN convoys, have you reached out to Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu while he's in the United States? And if you were able to talk to him, what would your message be?

 

Secretary-General: I have not reached out to the Prime Minister, but our people have been reaching out both to Israeli authorities and also to other countries, exactly in order to make sure that this kind of regrettable incidents are not repeated.

 

Question: Secretary-General, thank you. Yesterday, Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed a joint session of the US Congress and he described his vision for a post-war Gaza. He described it as “a demilitarized and deradicalized Gaza”. He said Israel does not seek to resettle Gaza, but it must retain overriding security control to prevent the resurgence of terror. I would like to get your reaction to his vision and whether it could foster a two-state solution or not.

 

Secretary-General: There was nothing said yesterday that is new. So, there is nothing that was said that deserves comment. And obviously, we absolutely must keep the two-state solution as the only possible long-term solution for peace in the region, independently of whatever is said by whoever, wherever.

 

Question: Thank you very much, Secretary-General. This is Serife from Anadolu Agency. Building on my colleague’s remarks on Mr. Netanyahu's speech at the Congress, I was hoping you didn't have to watch it because we had to. But he said, allow me to quote: “Despite all the lies you heard, the war in Gaza has one of the lowest ratios of combatants to non-combatants casualties in the history of urban warfare.” And he also argued that the number of civilians killed by Israeli forces in Rafah were practically none. So, as you said today, sir, the level of civilian killings in Gaza is unparalleled and unprecedented since you have become Secretary-General in 2007. So, how do you evaluate these allegations? Thank you.

 

Secretary-General: My answer is simple. To whom people believes in relation to that, I am very at ease in relation to this question.

 

Question: Thank you, Secretary-General. Benno Schwinghammer with the German Press Agency. The climate crisis is very much at the heart of your agenda. But like with so many other things in the world, the international community doesn't seem to follow you. It seems like it's even beneficial for some politicians to run against everything that the United Nations stands for. One example, allies around Donald Trump proposed a plan - it's called Project 2025. And it says, it calls on the next US president to stop the war on oil and natural gas. With this mindset, how can you even hope that humanity can win the fight against climate change?

 

Secretary-General: It is absolutely clear that it is scientifically proven that there is no way we can reach the 1.5 degrees without a total phase-out of fossil fuels - done, of course, in a fair and effective way.

 

Thank you.