The UN asks to tax the extraordinary profits of oil companies to pay the bill of the climate crisis

António Guterres calls for those gains to be redirected to people who cannot afford rising food and energy prices, and to countries suffering the impacts of warming

António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, has placed fossil fuels (oil, gas and coal) at the center of the climate crisis, mainly responsible for the greenhouse emissions that warm the planet. And he has called on every country in the world to impose taxes on the windfall profits fossil fuel companies are making from the current rise in energy prices. “Let’s redirect the money to people struggling with rising food and energy prices and to countries suffering loss and damage caused by the climate crisis,” said the UN chief at the start of the climate summit being held in the Egyptian city of Sharm el Sheikh. the so-called COP27.

This summit will feature prominently on the issue of loss and damage, strong economic impacts due to current and future warming, such as those caused by extreme weather events or islands that will disappear with rising sea levels. And Guterres has made clear that “achieving concrete results on loss and damage is a litmus test of governments’ commitment to the success of COP27.” The most vulnerable nations are the ones pushing the most so that this summit can lay the groundwork for the establishment of a financing compensation mechanism or fund. The UN secretary-general has called for “a clear and time-bound roadmap”.

For Guterres it is a “moral imperative” to address this issue, a question of “climate justice”. “Those who contributed least to the climate crisis are reaping the whirlwind sown by others,” he said, referring to the most vulnerable countries that, at the same time, are the ones that expel the least greenhouse gas emissions per capita into the atmosphere.

Guterres delivered this speech during the opening of the high-level event of COP27, in which more than a hundred heads of state and government of the world will participate. This event is the starting gun for the discussions that for two weeks will be carried out by the representatives of the almost 200 countries that are part of the UN negotiations on climate change. The opening will involve the main leaders of the EU – including Pedro Sánchez – and, although he will not be at the inauguration, Joe Biden, president of the United States, will also attend the Sharm el Sheikh summit at the end of the week. However, the top leaders of China, India and Russia will not participate in person. This does not mean that these countries will not attend the summit, since their ministers and delegates will be in the negotiations.

To talk about loss and damage is to talk about what is and will be inevitable due to climate change. But the future is not yet fully written. Guterres recalled that the planet “is rapidly approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible.” “We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator,” he added. But you may still not get past the “point of no return.” To do this, global emissions must take a radical turn and start falling urgently. “To avoid this terrible fate, all G20 countries must accelerate their transition now in this decade,” Guterres said. The members of the G-20 – among which are developed nations such as the US and members of the European Union, but also other countries considered emerging such as China, India or Brazil – are responsible for around 80% of global emissions, so it is essential that they toughen their commitments to cut greenhouse gases.

The EU and the US have presented plans to reduce their emissions by 2030. But large developing economies such as China and India are postponing big cuts beyond this decade. Guterres has opted to implement “measures to restore confidence, especially between north and south”, to turn this situation around.

A pact between north and south

The head of the UN has called for the closure of a “historic pact between developed and emerging economies”, a “climate solidarity pact”. An agreement in which all countries make “an extra effort to reduce emissions this decade” to ensure that the temperature at the end of the century does not exceed an increase of 1.5 degrees in average temperature compared to industrial levels (at the moment we are at 1.1 degrees). And a pact “in which richer countries and international financial institutions provide financial and technical assistance to help emerging economies accelerate their own transition to renewable energy.”

The secretary-general has called for an end to “dependence on fossil fuels and the construction of coal plants.” It must, he recalled, “phase out coal in OECD countries by 2030 and elsewhere by 2040.” He has expressly cited the United States and China, of which he has said that they have “the particular responsibility to join efforts to make this pact a reality.” “This is our only hope of meeting our climate goals,” he said.

Climate finance

Guterres recalled that despite climate negotiations such as those now taking place in Egypt, “greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow” and “global temperatures continue to rise.” That is why he has considered “unacceptable, outrageous and counterproductive” to leave the climate crisis in the background in the face of conflicts such as the war in Ukraine. “In fact, many of today’s conflicts are linked to growing climate chaos. The war in Ukraine has exposed the profound risks of our addiction to fossil fuels,” the UN Secretary-General said.

In his opinion, climate change is “the defining issue of our time”, so “today’s urgent crises cannot be an excuse to go backwards or for greenwashing [el lavado verde de cara]”. “If anything, they are a reason for greater urgency, stronger action and effective accountability,” Guterres added.

Source: The Country