During his opening speech of the UN General Assembly, Tuesday, September 20, the Secretary General denounced a climate action “put on the back” while “we have an appointment with the climate disaster” .
by
While the planet is burning and household expenditure is flying away, “the fossil fuel industry is enjoying hundreds of billions of dollars in exceptional subsidies and profits”. Once again, Antonio Guterres did not chew his words during his opening speech of the UN General Assembly, Tuesday, September 20. The Secretary General called on States rich in taxing these profits to redistribute them to the victims of the consequences of climate change and to the populations affected by inflation.
Coal, petroleum and gas manufacturers – energies responsible for climate change – “should spend less time advertising to avoid a communication disaster and more to avoid a planetary disaster,” said Antonio Guterres. The UN boss has also drew political leaders, denouncing a climate action “put on the back” while “we have an appointment with the climate disaster”.
After a summer marked by a succession of extreme events, the fight against climate change is trying to make a place in a tense diplomatic agenda, and will occupy part of the general assembly discussions this week. “The countries are in defensive mode, analyzes Rachel Kyte, dean of the Fletcher School of the University of Tufts (United States). We observe an erosion of the political impetus for the climate in a world which has become more complicated” , with the war in Ukraine, inflation and energy, food or debt crises. This general meeting will have to “connect all the crises between them” and “enhance common responses, such as financing”, judges Laurence Tubiana, the director of the European Climate Foundation.
Complete “losses and damage”
States are expected as a priority on a question now essential in climate negotiations: that of “losses and damage”, the irreversible damage caused by the multiplication of extreme events. With the deadly floods in Pakistan, which left 1,500 dead and caused for nearly $ 30 billion (as many euros) of damage, “we can no longer put this subject under the carpet, advances Ulka Kelkar, climate director World Resources Institute (WRI) for India. We expect solidarity on the part of developed countries, recognition of their historical responsibility in climate change. “
The developing countries, the most affected but also the least responsible for warming, require a new specific financing mechanism to allow them to deal with these damage, which the developed countries refuse for the moment. The file will be at the center of the next global climate conference, the COP27, which will be held in Egypt in November. It will be carried out in particular by Pakistan, which this year chairs the negotiation group “G77 and China”, representing 134 countries of the South.
You have 43.04% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.