The world is in the eye of a category 5 hurricane. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said this in a Wednesday speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos.
The UN chief pointed the finger at the oil sector and believed they should pay for the climate damage.
“A perfect storm is plaguing our world on several fronts,” said Guterres. He referred, among other things, to the global recession, the war in Ukraine, growing inequality, a rapid increase in the cost of living, higher debts that make countries vulnerable and the lingering scars of the corona pandemic. As far as the fight against global warming is concerned, the UN chief even judged “that the battle is lost”. “Every week brings new climate horror,” it sounded. He compared the crises to “cars in a pile-up”.
The promise to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius “goes up in smoke”. Instead, the world is facing a warming of 2.8 degrees Celsius, according to Guterres.
The UN chief thinks those who knew in the 1970s that non-renewable energy was harmful should pay for that omission. According to him, the oil sector has spread “big lies” and must now be held accountable. Guterres called the current increase in production “madness”. The secretary-general was also sceptical of some companies’ announcements about climate neutrality.
