Guest essay by Eric Worrall

As the UN plan to assume leadership of the world’s climate response unravels before his eyes, and the world focusses on real problems, UN Secretary General António Guterres is urging people to remember the fake climate crisis.

UN chief warns against ‘sleepwalking to climate catastrophe’

21 March 2022 Climate and Environment

The goal to limit future warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, highlighted in the Paris Agreement on climate change, and driven home in last November’s COP26, gathering in Glasgow, is now on “life support” and “in intensive care,” the UN chief told the Economist Sustainability Summit on Monday.   

Speaking via video link, Secretary-General António Guterres highlighted some of the progress made at COP 26 last year but pointing to “the enormous emissions gap” conceded that “the main problem was not solved – it was not even properly addressed.”  

“Keeping 1.5 alive requires a 45 per cent reduction in global emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by mid-century”, he said, highlighting how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatened to become a huge setback for the concerted effort to speed up climate action.  

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Last year alone, global energy-related CO2 emissions grew by six per cent “to their highest levels in history,” Mr. Guterres said, as coal emissions surged “to record highs.”  

With the planet warming by as much as 1.2 degrees, and where climate disasters have forced 30 million to flee their homes, Mr. Guterres warned: “We are sleepwalking to climate catastrophe.”  

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If we do not want to “kiss 1.5 goodbye…we need to go to the source – the G20”(group of leading industrialized nations), the UN chief said.  

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“We can’t point fingers while the planet burns,” said the Organization head. 

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As major economies pursue a so-called “all-of-the-above” strategy to replace Russian fossil fuels, short-term measures might create long-term fossil fuel dependence and close the 1.5 degrees window, he warned.  

“Countries could become so consumed by the immediate fossil fuel supply gap that they neglect or knee-cap policies to cut fossil fuel use,” Mr. Guterres insisted. “This is madness.” 

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“Developed countries, multilateral development banks, private financial institutions and companies with the technical know-how – all need to join forces…to deliver support at scale and with speed to coal-intensive economies”, he added. 

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Read more: https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/03/1114322

The UN’s continued adherence to the climate faith in my opinion simply demonstrates how out of touch they are with the needs of the people they claim to serve. Even green Germany has thrown climate purity overboard in the face of the Ukraine crisis. But the UN is so detached from ordinary people, they simply don’t care. The message of necessity has yet to penetrate.