UN's Guterres: Climate crisis is outrunning us

Fossil fuels must go the way of the dinosaurs, but this will not happen on its own, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told world leaders at the COP31 climate summit.

He also called for higher taxes on the massive profits generated by oil companies, CE Report quotes STA.

"The brutal truth is that the climate crisis is outrunning us," Guterres said at the leaders' summit held as part of the UN climate conference in Antalya, Türkiye. "This is a path to mutually assured destruction." He recalled that greenhouse gas emissions reached a record high last year and that the past four years were the hottest on record.

Since 2023, when countries first agreed at the UN climate conference in Dubai to transition away from fossil fuels, a major driver of climate change, governments have sought to advance this goal at annual climate summits. However, progress has remained difficult.

"Fossil fuel interests are making enormous profits while destroying our planet," Guterres said, urging countries to tax the exceptionally high profits of oil companies.

According to the UN chief, the revenue should primarily be directed towards vulnerable countries suffering the consequences of the climate crisis.

He also warned that the strategy employed by fossil fuel lobby groups was straightforward: distorting scientific findings, delaying policy decisions, postponing action and shifting responsibility.

"It is time to abandon this approach and end our dependence on fossil fuels," he said, drawing applause from world leaders.

"Science is not telling us to surrender. It is telling us to fight harder," Guterres added. "Fossil fuels must go the way of the dinosaurs, but this will not happen by itself. Dinosaurs had no lobby. Fossil fuels do."

Guterres argued that there was no alternative to gradually phasing out oil, coal and gas, and called on every country to prepare a plan for transitioning away from fossil fuels.

"This means no new coal use and no new oil and gas infrastructure, which further jeopardise the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels," he stressed.

He also recalled scientific findings indicating that temporarily exceeding this temperature threshold is now unavoidable.

However, the international community still has the ability to determine how far temperatures rise above the threshold, how long they remain there and how devastating the consequences will be, Guterres said.

"But this requires leadership. We know the truth. Now we must act," he concluded.

Guterres, who has made the fight against climate change a central priority since taking office as UN Secretary-General in 2017, is attending the final UN climate conference of his tenure, which ends in December.

Photo Instagram/antonioguterres