The general secretary of the UN, António Guterres, launched an anathema against “the excessive greed” from the fossil fuel industry, and warned that some companies “have attempted to block the transition to zero emissions using their money and influence to delay, distract and deceive“.
In the context of the General Assembly, Guterres limited participation in the New York Climate Ambition Summit to 34 countries, chosen for their progress in climate change action. There were, among others, Brazil, Canada, Pakistan, South Africa and the island nation of Tuvalu.
The American president was calculatedly left out Joe Bidenthe Chinese president Xi Jinping and the ‘premier’ Rishi Sunak, who at the same time presented in London his plan to “reverse” climate change, and dismantle a large part of his predecessor’s commitments Boris Johnson to reach zero emissions in 2050.
“Humanity has opened the gates of hell,” Guterres proclaimed at the outset before his small audience, recalling the recent impacts of the extreme summer in the northern hemisphere, of the fires in Canada, Hawaii and Greece to floods in Libya and China.
“Climate action has been dwarfed by the magnitude of the challenge we face,” he said. “If nothing changes, we are moving towards a world with an increase in temperatures of 2.8 degreesa dangerous and unstable world.”