Guterres opened the meeting by warning of a dangerous and unstable world if nothing changes.
— Terrible heat has terrible effects. Desperate farmers watch crops washed away by floods. Rising temperatures give rise to disease, he said.
Only leaders with ambitious plans to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions had been invited to speak.
Over a hundred applications to participate in the meeting should have been received, according to the AFP news agency. But only 41 representatives of countries, cities, states, companies and organizations were found on the list of speakers.
Including the EU, but also individual member states such as Denmark, Iceland and France. However, large emission countries such as China and the USA were not included. Nor Sweden.
Britain as a whole did not speak, but London Mayor Sadiq Khan was invited.
It is unclear whether Sweden has registered an interest in participating in the climate meeting – the largest in New York since Greta Thunberg made headlines in 2019 with her speech on the theme “How dare you?”.