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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/11/antonio-guterres-interview-climate-crisis-pandemic-g7>
"Wealthy countries risk an “unforgivable lost opportunity” by not emerging from
the Covid-19 pandemic with newly green economies to address the climate crisis,
the United Nations secretary general has warned.
Before meeting the leaders of the world’s major economic powers at the G7
summit in the UK, António Guterres said he was concerned that the richest
nations have pumped billions of dollars more into fossil fuels than clean
energy since the pandemic, despite their promises of a green recovery.
“I’m more than disappointed, I’m worried about the consequences,” Guterres told
the Guardian at the UN headquarters in New York, as part of a Covering Climate
Now consortium of interviews alongside NBC News and El Pais. “We need to make
sure we reverse the trends, not maintain the trends. It’s now clear we are
coming to a point of no return.
“To spend these trillions of dollars and not use this occasion to reverse the
trends and massively invest in the green economy will be an unforgivable lost
opportunity.”
A recent analysis showed the G7 countries – the UK, US, Canada, Italy, France,
Germany and Japan – have committed $189bn to support oil, coal and gas, as well
as offer financial lifelines to the aviation and automotive sectors, since the
outbreak of the coronavirus. This is over $40bn more than has been directed
towards renewable energy.
Several leaders, including the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, and the
German chancellor, Angela Merkel, have stressed the need for the climate crisis
to be central to the Covid recovery, with various cities around the world
ushering in cyclists and pedestrians to streets previously dominated by cars.
But while the G7 countries have agreed to stop the international financing of
coal, the world’s wealthiest nations are pouring billions of dollars into
developing gas, another fossil fuel, in the global south at a rate four times
that of finance supporting wind or solar projects. With economies starting to
reopen, planet-heating emissions are expected to jump by the second biggest
annual rise in history in 2021, according to the International Energy Agency."
Via Robert Sanscartier.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
