[ad_1]
The Secretary General’s interview, conducted by CBS News, The Times of India, is country on behalf of the Covering Climate Now news consortium, it is part of a 10-day push by the United Nations to reinvigorate the Paris Agreement ahead of a follow-up conference next year. That conference, known as the 26th Conference of the Parties, or COP 26, was supposed to take place this week but was postponed due to the pandemic. On 12 December 2020, Guterres will celebrate the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Paris Agreement by convening a global climate summit with Boris Johnson, who as UK Prime Minister is the official host of COP 26, held in Glasgow, in Scotland. , next November.
A total of 110 countries joined the “net zero by 2050” coalition, the Secretary-General said, a development he attributed to the growing recognition of the increasingly frequent and destructive extreme weather events that climate change is unleashing across the country. world and the “tremendous pressure” governments have faced civil society, including millions of young people protesting in virtually every country, as well as increasingly in the private sector.
“Governments, until now, thought they could do whatever they wanted,” Guterres said. “But now … we see young people mobilizing in fantastic ways around the world.” And with solar and other renewable energy sources now cheaper than carbon-based equivalents, investors are realizing that “the sooner they move … to portfolios linked to the new green and digital economy, the better for their assets. and for its customers. “
For a global economy that still relies on oil, gas and coal for most of its energy and much of its food production, the move to “net zero” by 2050 nevertheless represents a tectonic shift, all the more so because Scientists estimate to decrease by roughly half over the next 10 years to reach the 2050 target. Achieving these targets will require fundamental changes in both public and private policy, including the construction of no new coal plants and the phasing out of existing ones, Guterres said. Governments also need to reform tax and subsidy practices.
There should be “no more fossil fuel subsidies,” the Secretary General said. “It makes no sense for taxpayers’ money to be spent on destroying the planet. At the same time, we should shift taxation from income to carbon, from taxpayers to polluters. I’m not asking governments to raise taxes. I ask governments to reduce taxes on payrolls or on companies that commit to investing in green energy and impose that level of taxation on carbon pollution. “
Governments must also ensure a “just transition” for people and communities affected by the phasing out of fossil fuels, with workers receiving unemployment benefits and retraining for jobs in the new green economy. “When I was in government [as the prime minister of Portugal], we had to close all the coal mines, “he recalled.” We did everything possible to make sure that those who worked in those mines had their future guaranteed. “
The “oil cycle as a key engine of the world economy is over,” Guterres said. By the end of the 21st century, oil could still be used “as raw materials for different products … but the role of fossil fuels as [an energy source] it will be minimal. “Regarding the stated ambitions of fossil fuel companies to continue producing more oil, gas and coal, Guterres said that various economic sectors have increased and decreased throughout history and that the digital sector has now replaced the fuel sector. fossils as the center of the global economy. “I am absolutely convinced that much of the oil and gas found in the soil today,” he said, “will remain in the soil.”
Source link
