?

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to reporters during a press encounter at the UN headquarters in New York, Nov. 28, 2018. Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called for strong leadership in the global fight against climate change. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called for strong leadership in the global fight against climate change.

"We are not meeting the promises that were made in Paris, and we need not only for countries to fully assume and implement the engagements they made in Paris, but we need more ambition. And, for more ambition, we need more leadership," the UN chief told reporters at the UN New York headquarters before he departed for the G20 Summit in Argentina and the Climate Conference in Poland - COP24 on Wednesday night.

"Leadership is the capacity of political leaders to make their countries be more ambitious in relation to the objectives for climate change," he said.

"Leadership is to understand that the agreement is the most important objective, that more than to be very stubborn in staying in each one's position," the UN chief added.

While noting that human being is "headed for a world of cataclysm and uncertainty due to climate disruption, he cited top scientists as warning that "we have little time left to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees."

The UN chief also quoted the World Meteorological Organization's finding as showing that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere "has increased to levels not seen in 3 million years."

"Failure to act means more disasters and emergencies and air pollution that could cost the global economy as much as 21 trillion U.S. dollars by 2050," he warned.

The UN chief continued to cite the World Health Organization's finding as showing that more than 90 percent of the world's urban population breathes unsafe air.

"Meeting the Paris Agreement commitments could save more than a million lives a year," the secretary-general said.

The UN chief said that he will carry the same message to both meetings he's going to attend: "At a time of declining global trust, our world needs stepped-up global leadership."

"We are in a race for our future. It's a race we can and simply must win," the secretary-general concluded.