In a public statement shared via his official account on social platform X, top diplomat Rodríguez emphasized the pressing need to guarantee fair, unobstructed access to critical resources required for all nations to advance along sustainable development pathways. He called on wealthy industrialized economies to step up and acknowledge their well-documented historical contributions to global emissions, while meeting longstanding commitments to deliver climate finance and facilitate cross-border technology transfer under clear, verifiable, and predictable timelines.
Rodríguez went on to highlight the urgent necessity of rolling back all unilateral coercive trade restrictions, framing such measures as a major barrier to meaningful global climate progress. “Without removing these harmful trade barriers, we cannot deliver the bold, ambitious climate action the planet demands, nor can we deliver equitable, inclusive, and sustainable just transitions for vulnerable communities around the world,” he stated.
The foreign minister cited latest official data from the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to underscore the severity of the current climate crisis, noting that 2025 carbon dioxide concentrations have surged to 153% of pre-industrial baseline levels, while atmospheric methane and nitrous oxide concentrations have also hit all-time recorded peaks. These record-high greenhouse gas levels are locking in long-term global warming trends that will persist for generations, he warned.
Against this grim backdrop, Rodríguez pointed out that low- and middle-income developing nations, and especially fragile small island developing states, are confronting nearly insurmountable hurdles to secure the climate finance, green technology, and material resources they need to adapt to and mitigate the worsening impacts of climate breakdown.
The WMO first issued its formal warning on these unprecedented greenhouse gas levels in late October 2025, confirming that heat-trapping gases driving the climate crisis had hit historic highs by the end of that year. The UN specialized agency further explained that these long-lived atmospheric pollutants will continue to trap excess heat in the planet’s atmosphere for hundreds of years, supercharging extreme weather events, and amplifying cascading economic, social, and humanitarian risks for every region across the globe.