Fossil fuels 'incompatible with human survival,' says UN chief Guterres

The head of the United Nations launched an angry tirade against fossil fuel companies on Thursday, accusing them of betraying future generations and undermining efforts to phase out a product he called incompatible with human survival.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also dismissed suggestions by some oil executives including the man tapped to chair this year's international climate talks in Dubai that fossil fuel firms can keep up production if they find a way to capture planet-warming carbon emissions. He warned that this would just make them more efficient planet-wreckers.

It's not the first time the UN chief has called out Big Oil over its role in causing global warming, but the blunt attack reflects growing frustration at the industry's recent profit bonanza despite warnings from scientists that burning fossil fuels will push the world far beyond any safe climate threshold.

 

Last year, the oil and gas industry reaped a record USD 4 trillion windfall in net income, Guterres said after a meeting with civil society groups. "Yet for every dollar it spends on oil and gas drilling and exploration, only 4 cents went to clean energy and carbon capture combined.

Trading the future for thirty pieces of silver is immoral, he said.

Guterres called on the industry to put forward a credible plan for shifting to clean energy and away from a product incompatible with human survival.

Fossil fuel companies have lately pushed the idea that they should be allowed to keep pumping oil and gas out of the ground as long they remove greenhouse gas emissions in the process, a suggestion experts reject as too complicated and costly to deliver the urgent cuts of greenhouse gas needed.

The problem is not simply fossil fuel emissions, Guterres said, a nod to recent comments made by Sultan al-Jaber, the United Arab Emirates' official who will lead the next UN climate summit. It's fossil fuels period.

Al-Jaber, who is also the UAE's minister of industry and chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, has come under fire from environmentalists and Western lawmakers for his close ties to the fossil fuel industry. He was chosen by the UAE to lead the COP28 talks and criticism of his role by the UN chief albeit veiled is highly unusual.

Guterres urged rich countries to commit to phasing out coal, the most polluting fossil fuel, by 2030, and others to follow suit a decade later. Governments should also switch subsidies from fossil fuels to clean energy projects, and put a price on carbon emissions, he said.

His comments came as negotiators from almost 200 countries wrap up two weeks of talks in Bonn, Germany, in preparation for COP28. The UN climate office confirmed Thursday that it will require delegates attending the summit in Dubai to disclose their affiliation in an effort to clamp down on undue influence by fossil fuel companies and others.

Participants will also be asked to provide optional information on their relationship with the government agency or organisation that's nominated them and those declining to do so will be flagged accordingly.

Civil society groups welcomed the decision, which will apply to them too, but said participants should also have to disclose who is funding their attendance.

Guterres echoed their concerns, warning that fossil fuel companies are undermining climate measures and said they must cease and desist influence peddling and legal threats designed to knee-cap progress.

I am thinking particularly of recent attempts to subvert net zero alliances, invoking anti-trust legislation, Guterres said, referring to efforts in some US states aimed at preventing insurance companies from setting environmental standards for the companies they invest in.

He urged financial institutions to commit to stop financing fossil fuel projects and encouraged those already doing so not (to) relent in the face of attacks on progress.

You are doing the right thing, he said. Keep going.