António Guterres took a trip to the Nepalese Himalayas, where the climate catastrophe is taking place. Guterres is calling on world leaders to act decisively in the fight against climate change.

The UN secretary-general warned in a video shared on X that Nepal's snow-capped mountains have lost nearly a third of their ice in 30 years due to global warming. Melting glaciers are an immediate threat to people living in Nepal as overflowing mountain lakes are flooding inhabited valleys.

As reported by euronews.com, scientists warn that at this rate, the Himalayan glaciers in the region could lose up to 75% of their volume by the end of this century. The consequences will be unimaginable: water from the mountains will cease to feed the Ganges and Indus rivers, and their deltas will be flooded with salt water from the rising ocean.

The addressees of Guterres' warning message are primarily the participants of the COP28 summit (28th United Nations Climate Change Conference). The meeting of world leaders will take place from 30 November to 12 December 2023.

The annual summit is an event where government representatives agree on international policies to limit global temperature rise and minimise the effects of climate change. This year's COP28 will be held amid controversy due to its location in Dubai. The UAE is one of the world's largest per capita emitters of CO2.

In an earlier video from Nepal shared on X, Guterres appealed: "I am here today to cry out from the rooftop of the world: stop the madness." In order to do so, the secretary-general stressed that there must be a global end to the "fossil fuel age". "Glaciers are retreating, we cannot retreat. We must move forward with climate action," he concluded.

Source: euronews.com