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Climate talks at COP29 in Baku turned to the pressing issue of how to manage the demand for minerals essential to producing electric vehicles and solar panels without triggering a “stampede of greed” that exploits local communities and crushes the poor. “We are here to respond to a key challenge: turning the energy transition towards justice,” said �山����Secretary-General António Guterres, asking the participants at a roundtable discussion to weigh in on the work of his Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals. 

Secretary-General António Guterres called for countries to step up contributions to a financial mechanism to assist developing countries affected by climate change. Mr. Guterres made the appeal in remarks to a high-level dialogue on loss and damage funding during the COP29 �山����climate change conference in Baku, Azerbaijan. “In an era of climate extremes, loss and damage finance is a must,” he said. “I urge governments to deliver. In the name of justice.”

Secretary-General António Guterres said that leaders gathered in Baku for the COP29 Climate Action Summit must take immediate steps to cut emissions, safeguard people from climate chaos, and “tear down the walls to climate finance” in response to the “masterclass in climate destruction” that the world has witnessed in 2024. “The sound you hear is the ticking clock. We are in the final countdown to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. And time is not on our side,” he warned.

Secretary-General António Guterres warned the people of Sudan are trapped in a “nightmare of violence, hunger, disease and displacement”, as the brutal war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continues to rage. “The suffering is growing by the day, with almost 25 million people now in need of humanitarian assistance,” Mr. Guterres told ambassadors at the Security Council, emphasizing the dire conditions civilians are enduring 18 months into the conflict. He described the situation as a series of unrelenting nightmares. 

The BRICS intergovernmental organization can play a greater role in strengthening multilateralism for global development and security, �山����Secretary-General António Guterres said, in remarks to the group’s summit hosted by Russia in the city of Kazan. He urged the bloc to help forge a more equitable global finance system, boost climate action, improve access to technology and work towards peace, particularly in Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine and Sudan. BRICS was founded in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India and China, who were later jointed by South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates. Collectively, they represent nearly half the world’s population.