With Costs Falling, Investments Rising, Renewables Are ‘Rewriting the Rules’ of Energy, Secretary-General in Message at Launch of Emissions Gap Report

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres' video message for the 2025 Emissions Gap Report, issued by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in Nairobi today:

The new Emissions Gap Report, issued by the United Nations Environment Programme, is clear and uncompromising.

If nationally determined contributions are fully implemented by 2035, global warming would reach 2.3°C - down from 2.6°C in last year's projections. That is progress, but nowhere near enough.

Current commitments still point to climate breakdown. Scientists tell us that a temporary overshoot above 1.5°C is now inevitable - starting, at the latest, in the early 2030s. And the path to a liveable future gets steeper by the day.

But this is no reason to surrender. It's a reason to step up and speed up. 1.5°C by the end of the century remains our North Star. And the science is clear: this goal is still within reach, but only if we meaningfully increase our ambition.

Our mission is simple, but not easy: Make any overshoot as small and as short as possible; reach global net-zero emissions by 2050 and move swiftly onto a progressive, irreversible net-negative pathway; and bring the global temperature increase back below 1.5°C by the end of the century.

That means peaking global emissions immediately; achieving far deeper emission reductions during this decade; cutting methane sharply; accelerating the transition from fossil fuels to renewables; and protecting forests and oceans - our carbon sinks.

Make no mistake: Any period of overshooting will inevitably bring dramatic consequences - with lives lost, communities uprooted and development gains reversed. But we have the solutions to make this overshoot as small, as short and as safe as possible.

That demands a massive scale-up in renewables and adaptation backed by a surge in finance for developing countries. Renewables are leading that transformation and rewriting the rules of energy. Costs are falling, investments are rising, innovation is surging.

Clean power is now the cheapest source of electricity in most markets and the fastest to deploy. It strengthens energy security, cuts pollution and creates millions of decent jobs.

Leaders must seize this moment and waste no time in tripling renewables and doubling energy efficiency by 2030; building modern grids and large-scale storage; and ending all new coal, oil and gas expansion in a just and equitable manner.

The clean energy revolution must reach everyone, everywhere. But developing countries face crippling capital costs and a fraction of global investment. They also need far greater support to adapt to worsening climate impacts - protecting lives and building resilience.

We need a quantum leap in climate finance to lower the cost of capital and expand concessional lending. Developed countries must lead in delivering predictable, affordable finance through multilateral development bank reform, effective debt solutions and tools that crowd in private investment at scale.

COP30 [thirtieth Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change] in Belém must be the turning point where the world delivers a bold and credible response plan to close the ambition and implementation gaps; to mobilize the $1.3 trillion a year by 2035 in climate finance for developing countries; and to advance climate justice for all.

The path to 1.5°C is narrow but open. Let us accelerate to keep that path alive for people, for the planet and for our common future.