17 June
2022
Secretary-General's virtual remarks to Major
Economies Forum on Energy and Climate
António Guterres
President Biden, Excellencies,
I thank President Biden for this opportunity.
I will be brief and, if you’ll allow me, I will be blunt.
You represent the major economies – and the major
emitters – of the world.
The first duty of leadership is to protect people from
clear and present dangers.
Now nothing could be more clear or present than the
danger of fossil fuel expansion.
Even in the short-term, it doesn’t make political or
economic sense.
Yet we seem trapped in a world where fossil fuel
producers and financiers have humanity by the throat.
For decades, many in the fossil fuel industry has
invested heavily in pseudo-science and public relations – with a false
narrative to minimize their responsibility for climate change and undermine
ambitious climate policies.
They exploited precisely the same scandalous tactics
as Big Tobacco decades before.
Like tobacco interests, fossil fuel interests and
their financial accomplices must not escape responsibility.
The argument of putting climate action aside to deal
with domestic problems also rings hollow.
Had we invested earlier and massively in renewable
energy, we would not find ourselves once again at the mercy of unstable fossil
fuel markets.
So let’s make sure the war in Ukraine is not used to
increase that dependency.
Today’s most pressing domestic problems – like
inflation and gas prices – are themselves climate and fossil fuel problems.
Without bolder climate action, these and other related
problems are just the tip of a fast-melting iceberg.
The math is simple.
The current model of infinite growth in a world of
finite physical resources will deliver a permanent triple whammy of inflation,
climate chaos and conflict.
The solution is equally clear: we do have infinite
resources at our disposal when it comes to energy needs.
Wind, sun and tides never run out.
If we can successfully replace finite, polluting
fossil fuels with infinite renewable resources, we can make the energy equation
add up.
We can put stable prices and sustainable economic
growth within reach.
These renewable energy sources are already cheaper
than fossil fuels and create three times more jobs.
Renewables not only fight the climate crisis, they
support energy security.
The time for hedging bets has ended.
The world has gambled on fossil fuels and lost.
That is why I have put forward a five-point plan for a
renewable energy revolution:
Treat renewable technologies as a freely available
global public good.
Expand and diversify renewable energy supply chains.
Shift fossil fuel subsidies to vulnerable people that
want to engage in the green economy.
Reform bureaucracies to fast-track approval processes.
And triple public and private investments in
renewables to at least $4 trillion dollars a year.
Excellencies,
The climate crisis is our number one emergency.
Renewables are the peace plan of the 21st century,
together with all the new technologies that President Biden has referred to.
I count on your governments to end the age of fossil
fuels.
The renewables revolution starts now. Thank you.
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