Speaking at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell highlighted the economic impact of climate change, noting it is slicing up to 5% off GDP in many countries.
“The climate crisis is a cost-of-living crisis. Climate disasters are driving up costs for households and businesses. Worsening climate impacts will put inflation on steroids unless every country can take bolder climate action,” Stiell emphasized.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called 2024 a record-breaking year for heat, saying it has been “a masterclass in climate destruction,” with families fleeing hurricanes, biodiversity declining in warming seas, and workers struggling in extreme heat. “Floods are tearing through communities, destroying infrastructure, while droughts ravage crops, leaving children hungry,” he said, attributing these impacts to human-induced climate change.
Stiell urged leaders to learn from the pandemic, where lack of swift collective action caused significant hardship. “Climate finance is global inflation insurance,” he said, adding that climate change costs should be “public enemy number one.”
Calling for urgency, Stiell told leaders, “Billions cannot afford for their government to leave COP29 without a global climate finance goal.” He encouraged them to “skip the posturing” and focus on finding common ground.
“These are not easy times, but despair is no strategy,” Stiell said. “International cooperation is the only way humanity survives global heating. The time for hand-wringing is over; let’s get on with the job.”
