The Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres, has once again advocated the abandonment of fossil fuels, with an agreed calendar. He has also called for imposing taxes on extraordinary profits on large oil companies and ending subsidies for fossil fuels.

“We cannot save a burning planet with a hose of fossil fuels. The science is clear: the 1.5ºC limit is only possible if we stop burning all fossil fuels:  we do not reduce them; we do not reduce them,” he said, thus indirectly referring to the nascent technologies to capture and store carbon emissions, wielded to legitimize the continuation of fossil fuels in the long term.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged world leaders at the COP28 climate summit to plan for a future without fossil fuels, arguing there is no other way to slow global warming.

Guterres has assured, however, that it is not yet too late to limit global warming and avoid planetary collapse as long as we act now and agree to the progressive elimination of all fossil fuels.

“The vital signs of the Earth are failing: record emissions, ferocious fires, deadly droughts and the hottest year in history. We are kilometers away from the goals of the Paris Agreement” and on the limit of being able to limit warming by 1.5 degrees, he stated.

“But it is not too late and planetary collapse can be avoided. We have the necessary technologies to avoid the worst of climate chaos, if we act now,” Guterres asserted, in a tone of hope unusual in his speeches on climate change.

To achieve this, we now need “leadership, cooperation and political will”, according to the United Nations leader, who has stressed that climate action can also change the injustice that governs the world.

In his opinion, the success of the COP depends on compliance with what is prescribed by the global balance of the Paris Agreement (Global Stocktake), which has defined action in three areas.

First of all, he said, emissions must be drastically reduced, a section in which the G20 (the largest economies in the world that concentrate 80% of global emissions) must take the initiative, said Guterres, who has urged countries developed economies to be net zero emissions by 2040 and emerging economies by 2050.

“Secondly, we cannot save a burning planet with a hose of fossil fuels (…) The science is clear, the 1.5 degree limit is only possible if we stop burning all fossil fuels” progressively and with a clear calendar, as well as tripling renewable capacity and doubling energy efficiency.

In this section, he recalled that experts have recommended ending coal by 2030 in OECD countries and by 2040 in the rest, to which he added that, according to the International Energy Agency, oil and gas companies only contribute 1% of investment in clean energy.

“I have a message for the leaders of fossil fuel companies: do not continue betting on an obsolete business model and lead the transition to renewable energies” because the path towards climate sustainability “is also the only viable path to economic sustainability.” of their companies”.

In this context, he has asked governments to help the sector make the right decision “by regulating, legislating, putting a fair price on carbon, ending subsidies for fossil fuels and adopting a tax on extraordinary profits.”

Third, parties must commit to increasing financing in mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage and support the reform of multilateral development banks to achieve much more private financing at reasonable costs.

In the high-level segment, the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, among other leaders, attends; the president of the United Arab Emirates, Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nehayan; the kings of the United Kingdom, Jordan, Bahrain, Tonga; Princes Albert of Monaco and the Crown Prince of Liechtenstein; the Grand Duke of Luxembourg; representatives of the European Union; the presidents of practically all the countries that are part of the Climate Change Convention and among them the president of France, Emanuel Macron, and the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez.