Al Gore. Photo credit: Pablo Porciuncula / AFP / Profimedia
Former US Vice President Al Gore said, in a speech at the UN Climate Change Conference COP30, held in Brazil, that it is “literally crazy” that humanity continues to misuse the atmosphere, reports the DPA and Agerpres news agencies.
Addressing delegates at the climate summit, known as COP30, Gore said 175 million tonnes of climate-damaging greenhouse gases are released into the air each year.
“We have to adapt as well as mitigate, but we also have to be realistic that if we allow this madness to continue, to use the sky as an open sewer, it's going to be very difficult to adapt to some things,” Gore insisted.
This reunion of proportions takes place 10 years after the Paris Climate Agreement, considered historic at the time. The international community then agreed to limit global warming as close as possible to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
But according to a current United Nations forecast, with existing climate policies, the world is on track to reach 2.8 degrees Celsius of warming.
The 30th UN Climate Change Conference began Monday in Belem, where more than 190 countries are holding nearly two weeks of talks on how to tackle the climate crisis.
Gore's main focus at the summit was discussing the Climate Trace initiative, which he co-founded. It's a non-profit coalition of organizations tracking emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants.
Al Gore, who was vice president of the United States under Bill Clinton, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 in recognition of his efforts to draw attention to the dramatic consequences of climate change. He is the author of the book “An Inconvenient Truth”, which became the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary.
