Antalya (Turkey) (AFP) – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday slammed soaring fossil fuel profits as “morally unacceptable” and demanded governments put their people ahead of the bottom lines of oil and gas giants. In an exclusive interview with AFP at COP31, the outgoing UN chief said no country could pursue new fossil fuels while claiming to fight climate change — including summit organisers Turkey and Australia.
The climate conference in Antalya has resurfaced old fault lines over fossil fuels, with some countries pushing for a faster exit from coal, oil, and gas while others defend their right to exploit these resources. The negotiations fall in the midst of a conflict-driven energy crisis that has sharply spiked the cost of diesel, fertilisers, and other essential commodities. Guterres said it was “absurd” and “morally unacceptable” that nine fossil fuel majors would reap $95 billion in profits in a single quarter from the price hikes while ordinary people struggled to afford heating and fuel.
“We are talking about consolidated interests that are not easy to defeat,” Guterres told AFP at his final climate summit after a decade at the helm of the United Nations. “Governments need to protect the interests of their peoples — not the interests of a group of companies,” he said of the oil and gas firms often in his crosshairs. And that means no new fossil fuel projects, he said — even if industry groups apply concerted pressure on political leaders in an effort to protect their investments.
“Any new projects of fossil fuels do not make any sense,” said the 77-year-old former Portuguese prime minister, who steps down as secretary-general in December. “Now, obviously, I would prefer that the countries that are in this COP, all would assume that position — including the organisers.” Turkey celebrated the discovery of new oil fields on the opening day of COP31 while Australia, which is chairing the climate negotiations, faced criticism over recently approved coal mine expansions.
The wars in Ukraine and Iran, a pandemic, and paralysis in the Security Council have tested Guterres’ skills as a diplomat, but on fossil fuels, the UN chief has rarely pulled any punches. From his global pulpit, he has railed against “the godfathers of climate chaos,” accusing the oil and gas lobby of “killing our planet” and governments of “subsidising suicide” by propping up the industry. His fiery rhetoric has made him a champion among the climate movement — and something of a rarity at the COPs.
Neither Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese nor COP31 President Murat Kurum mentioned fossil fuels once by name during their keynote speeches to world leaders on Wednesday — despite being the main driver of climate change. By contrast, Guterres received raucous ovations as he called for fossil fuels to “go the way of the dinosaurs” and castigated governments for stalling the transition to clean energy. “This is an existential threat…we cannot minimise it. And I think we need to use a language that is clear enough for people to understand that we are really facing a severe risk at the present moment,” he said of his trademark flourishes.
“Secretary-General Guterres is a true global hero,” former US vice president Al Gore, himself a celebrated climate campaigner, told AFP in Antalya. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate said Guterres “deserves the thanks of the entire world and I hope the next secretary-general will follow his example.” But for the thundering prose, Guterres leaves office with a world far hotter than when he took office in 2017 shortly after the landmark Paris Agreement took effect.
Despite the explosion of electric cars and solar power, fossil fuel demand is surging, global emissions are at record highs, and the 1.5C limit will be breached in a matter of years. Most political leaders “have not yet fully understood that this is becoming a crisis moment,” and without drastic cuts to planet-heating emissions, the world is condemned to a bleaker future, he said. But “we have not lost the battle,” he said. “This is not the moment to surrender — this is the moment to fight back.”
© 2024 AFP
