The UN Secretary-General today urged world leaders gathered at the climate summit to end their “fossil fuel addiction,” in the face of a crisis that is worsening faster than governments’ responses.
“Fossil fuels must follow the path of the dinosaurs, but that won’t happen by itself. The dinosaurs didn’t have a ‘lobby’, but fossil fuels do,” António Guterres said at the 31st Conference of the United Nations on Climate Change (COP31), taking place in Antalya, Turkey, criticizing the fossil-fuel industry and its efforts to hinder the energy transition, even though renewable energy is already a cheap option.
The UN secretary-general accused these interests of distorting science and delaying policy decisions, urging policymakers to curb the expansion of oil, gas and coal production and to proclaim their commitment to climate goals.
Guterres warned that current national emission-reduction commitments are insufficient and would, even if fulfilled, lead to warming of about 2.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, noting that solar energy, which a decade ago accounted for just over 1% of the world’s electricity consumption, covered last year nearly three-quarters of the growth in demand.
Under the Paris Agreement, reached at COP21 in 2015, countries committed to keeping global temperatures from rising beyond 2°C above pre-industrial levels and, preferably, not to exceed 1.5°C.
The UN leader also argued for a new “climate justice pact” that guarantees financing for vulnerable countries, whose borrowing costs are far higher than those of developed economies, according to the Spanish news agency EFE.
He noted, for instance, that the nine largest oil companies earned profits of $95 billion in the last quarter, about €85 billion, a figure that contrasted with around $600 million (€538.6 million) donated to the international Loss and Damage Fund to help poor countries cope with the losses caused by climate change.
“That is what these companies earn in about 14 hours,” said Guterres, advocating the taxation of their extraordinary profits to finance the recovery of countries affected by climate disasters.
“Who pollutes must pay,” he added.
He also urged countries to overcome their commercial and geopolitical rivalries and work together to accelerate the energy transition, something that, he considered, “no one can solve alone.”
Guterres, who leaves office at the end of the year, told the leaders that his “first climate duty is to tell the truth.”
He added that “the hard truth is that the climate crisis is moving faster than the results of policies to combat warming and climate change.”
COP31, which brings together representatives from almost 200 countries, began on Monday and will run until November 20.
