Fossil fuel companies are the “godfathers of climate chaos” and should be banned in every country from advertising similar to the ban on big tobacco, the United Nations Secretary-General said as he issued dire new scientific warnings about global warming.
In a major speech in New York on Wednesday, António Guterres called on the news and technology media to stop enabling “planetary destruction” by cashing in on fossil fuel advertising, as he warned that the world faces a “time of climate crisis”. in its faltering efforts to contain the crisis. .
“Many governments restrict or ban advertising for products that harm human health, such as tobacco,” he said. “I call on every country to ban advertising from fossil fuel companies. And I call on the news media and technology companies to stop advertising fossil fuels.”
In his speech, Guterres announced new data from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) showing there is an 80% chance the planet will exceed 1.5C (2.7F) in warming over pre-industrial times in at least one in five years next calendar. . According to the European Union’s Copernicus monitoring system.
Governments agreed in the 2015 Paris climate pact to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5C to avoid heat waves, floods, droughts and other devastating impacts, and while a single year beyond that limit will not says the target has been missed, scientists widely expect this will happen in the next decade.
According to the WMO, there is roughly a 50-50 chance that the period 2024-2028 will average above 1.5C in warming, globally. “We are playing Russian roulette with our planet,” Guterres, known for his harsh language on the climate crisis, told an audience beneath a suspended 94-foot model of a blue whale at the American Museum of Natural History. “We need an exit ramp from the freeway to climate hell.”
In a nod to the site of his speech, Guterres said that “like the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, we are having a huge impact. In the case of climate, we are not the dinosaurs – we are the meteor. We are not only in danger, we are the danger.”
Guterres insisted the 1.5C target was “still almost achievable” but said there needed to be much greater efforts by countries to cut carbon emissions, boost climate finance for poorer countries and that the fossil fuel industry fossil fuel to become inaccessible to governments, media and other businesses for its role in causing the climate crisis.
“The godfathers of climate chaos – the fossil fuel industry – reap record profits and enjoy trillions in taxpayer-funded subsidies,” he said. “It is a shame that the most vulnerable are left stranded, struggling desperately to deal with a climate crisis they did nothing to create.
“We cannot accept a future where the wealthy are protected by air-conditioned bubbles while the rest of humanity is battered by deadly weather on unlivable lands.”
‘Stop fossil fuel advertising’
Guterres attacked fossil fuel firms for their underinvestment in cleaner forms of energy and for “distorting the truth, deceiving the public and sowing doubt” about climate science, before calling for a ban on government on fossil fuel advertising and public relations and media companies. to cut ties with oil, gas and coal interests.
“I call on these companies to stop enabling planetary destruction. Stop taking on new fossil fuel customers, starting today, and make plans to divest existing ones. Fossil fuels aren’t just poisoning our planet — they’re toxic to your brand.”
Asked for comment about the speech, Megan Bloomgren, senior vice president of communications at the American Petroleum Institute, the largest U.S. industry trade group, said: “Our industry is focused on continuing to produce affordable and reliable energy. reliable, while facing the climate challenge. and any claim to the contrary is false.”
Guterres praised the surge in clean energy deployment amid record levels of investment in wind, solar and other renewables, predicting that “economic logic makes the end of the fossil fuel era inevitable,” but added that governments must accelerate the phase- out of fossil fuels.
“It’s ‘we the people’ versus polluters and profiteers,” he said. “Together, we can win. But it is time for leaders to decide whose side they are on.”
The speech was timed to act as a key rallying call from a UN leadership concerned that the climate crisis has slipped down the list of priorities for a world wracked by war in Ukraine and Gaza and other economic concerns. A meeting of the powerful G7 group of countries will take place in Italy next week, followed by November’s Cop29 climate summit, to be held in Azerbaijan, along with a G20 meeting in Brazil.
Countries are currently working on new pledges on how they will cut emissions by 2035, with these pledges to be met by next year. Governments have not kept pace with previous pledges, however, with emissions rising to a new record high last year at a time when they must be halved by 2030 to avoid the worst climate effects.
Although there are hopes that last year will represent a peak in global emissions, “the stark reality remains that we are a long way from meeting the targets set out in the Paris agreement,” said Ko Barrett, the WMO’s secretary-general. .
The world is also stalling on progress towards a pledge made in December to triple electricity production from renewable sources by 2030, although there are signs that the pace of deployment is starting to pick up.
The impacts of the climate crisis continue to become increasingly vivid in the midst of this dispute, with countries including India and the US recently gripped by severe heat waves. A study published this week found that the widespread flooding that has devastated parts of southern Brazil, leading to 169 deaths, was at least twice as likely to be due to human-caused climate change.
“The problem now is urgent, and we can’t say we have to do something about it in the future, we have to take action now,” said Andrea Dutton, a climate scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The sooner we start making big cuts in emissions, the sooner we can start making a difference.”
Additional reporting by Dharna Noor
#Godfathers #climate #chaos #chief #calls #global #ban #fossil #fuel #ads
Image Source : www.theguardian.com