António Guterres, secretary general of the United Nations has warned that the world’s wealthiest countries are “signing away our future” by leading a “flood” of expansion in fossil fuel activity that threatens worsening heatwaves and other climate impacts that imperil billions of people.
On Thursday, Guterres called on countries to as a matter of urgency, “fight the disease” of the world’s “addiction” to coal, oil and gas, warning that tumbling heat records this week must spur rich nations to lead the way in phasing out fossil fuels.
“I must call out the flood of fossil fuel expansion we are seeing in some of the world’s wealthiest countries,” Guterres said in a speech in New York. “In signing such a surge of new oil and gas licenses, they are signing away our future. The leadership of those with the greatest capabilities and capacities is essential. Countries must phase out fossil fuels – fast and fairly.”
The remarks come a day after reports emerged of how a surge in fresh oil and gas exploration in 2024 threatens to unleash nearly 12bn tonnes of planet-heating gases, around the annual emissions of China, over the lifetime of the new drilling projects. Wealthy countries, such as the US and the UK, with a low economic dependence on fossil fuels have led this charge, handing out a record 825 oil and gas licenses last year.
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Guterres was quoted as saying that “the world’s wealthiest countries need to scrap fossil fuel subsidies, end new coal projects and support developing, vulnerable countries from climate impacts such as heatwaves, flooding and droughts. “Leaders across the board must wake up and step up,”.
This week, the mounting toll of the climate crisis has been brought into focus, with the record for the highest daily average global temperature falling on Sunday, and then again on Monday. The world has experienced 13 consecutive months of record heat, with this year expected to beat the annual temperature record, set just in 2023.
Already this summer, severe heatwaves have swept the US, Europe and Japan, while at least 1,300 people died making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
The UN on Thursday released a new report calling for countries to do more to protect people from extreme heat, pointing to data showing that about 489,000 people died each year from 2000 to 2019 from heat-related deaths, nearly half of them in Asia and a third occurring in Europe. New data from the International Labour Organization shows that more than 70% of the global workforce, approximately 2.4 billion people, are now at risk from extreme heat.
Guterres urged governments to increase access to low-carbon cooling, redesign cities to cope with extreme heat, protect vulnerable people – such as outdoor workers, pregnant women, children and elderly and disabled people – and build up early-warning systems to prepare for deadly heatwaves.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
