UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has referred to renewable energy as “the peace plan of the twenty-first century,” emphasising the importance of discontinuing funding for fossil fuels.
The UN Secretary-General was speaking in Vienna at the Sixth Austrian World Summit on Climate Change, which was convened by the Austrian Government and former California Governor and Hollywood actor turned climate activist, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Guterres underscored his call for G20 rulers to “demolish coal infrastructure, with a complete phase-out by 2030 for OECD countries and 2040 for the others.”
“The only true path to energy security, stable power prices, prosperity, and a patch of land is to give up environmental pollution fossil fuels, particularly coal, and increase speed the renewable sources energy transition,” he declared.
The window for avoiding the worst effects of the climate crisis is rapidly closing, according to the UN Secretary-General, and in order to meet the 1.5-degree target for limiting global warming, emissions must be cut by 45 percent by 2030, with net zero emissions by 2050.
“However, current national commitments will lead to an increase of nearly 14% this couple of years,” he said, while energy-related CO2 emissions increased by 6% just last year, “when they should be falling.”
“To be blunt, most climate policy campaign promises are highly insufficient. This is not just my opinion. “Science and public opinion have given timid climate policies a huge fail mark,” the UN Secretary-General told delegates.
“We are witnessing a historic and difficult and dangerous schism – science and citizens alike are demanding aspirational and life – changing climate action.” Meanwhile, many governments are stalling.”
He predicted dire consequences, with nearly half of the world’s population already in the “danger zone.”
