From the Liveblog of
Thursday, June 15, 2023
UN chief says fossil fuels ‘incompatible with human survival’
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The head of the United Nations launches an angry tirade against fossil fuel companies, accusing them of betraying future generations and undermining efforts to phase out a product he calls “incompatible with human survival.”
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also dismisses suggestions by some oil executives — including the man tapped to chair this year’s international climate talks in Dubai — that fossil fuel firms can keep up production if they find a way to capture planet-warming carbon emissions. He warns that this would just make them “more efficient planet-wreckers.”
It’s not the first time the UN chief has called out Big Oil over its role in causing global warming, but the blunt attack reflects growing frustration at the industry’s recent profit bonanza despite warnings from scientists that burning fossil fuels will push the world far beyond any safe climate threshold.
“Last year, the oil and gas industry reaped a record $4 trillion windfall in net income,” Guterres says after a meeting with civil society groups. “Yet for every dollar it spends on oil and gas drilling and exploration, only 4 cents went to clean energy and carbon capture — combined.”
“Trading the future for thirty pieces of silver is immoral,” he says.
The Times of Israel Community.