Antonio Guterres, the head of the UN, criticised “Big Oil” and cautioned that nations are not limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees.
He continued by saying that efforts to address global issues are being undermined by geopolitical division.
In his remarks on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum (WEF) gathering in Davos, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the state of the world as “sorry.”
According to Guterres, a number of problems are “piling up like cars in a chain reaction crash,” including climate change and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The UN chief claimed that efforts to address issues like skyrocketing inflation and supply-chain disruptions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic are being undermined by growing geopolitical division. Developing countries are being “pounded” by high debt levels, he continued.
Guterres said the world is “looking into the eye of a Category 5 hurricane.”
“Our world is being plagued by a perfect storm on a number of fronts,” he added.
We are facing the gravest levels of geopolitical division and mistrust in generations.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) January 18, 2023
At Davos, I urged leaders to bridge divides and restore cooperation to advance peace, sustainable development and human rights.
Guterres speaks on climate change, takes aim at ‘Big Oil’
Guterres called climate change an “existential challenge” for humanity. He added that the commitment to limit the Earth’s temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius “is nearly going up in smoke,” referring to the target set by the Paris Agreement in 2015.
He said that the “battle is being lost” and that every week brings “a new climate horror.”
Guterres also criticized oil firms for promoting skepticism on climate change, referring to a recent study that found scientists at US oil and gas giant ExxonMobil made predictions with “shocking accuracy” several decades ago at a time when the company publicly doubted global warming.
“We learned last week that certain fossil fuel producers were fully aware in the 1970s that their core product was baking our planet,” he said in his speech. “Some in Big Oil peddled the big lie.”
“Just like the tobacco industry, they rode rough-shod over their own science,” Guterres said. “And like the tobacco industry, those responsible must be held to account.”
ExxonMobil is the target of a number of lawsuits in the United States.