Countries must phasing out coal and other fossil fuels to avert climate catastrophe: UN Chief Guterres

New Delhi: UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that countries must phase out coal and other fossil fuels to avert climate “catastrophe”,

“We are hurtling towards disaster, eyes wide open”, he said. “It’s time to wake up and step up.”

Mr. Guterres was speaking to journalists at UN Headquarters following a meeting with civil society climate leaders from across the world on Thursday in New York.

He said limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius is still possible but will require a 45 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030.

However, current policies will lead to a 2.8°C temperature rise by the end of the century, which “spells catastrophe” he added.

Mr. Guterres called for immediate global action toward net-zero emissions, which “must start with the polluted heart of the climate crisis: the fossil fuel industry.”

Countries must progressively phase out fossil fuels, “moving to leave oil, coal, and gas in the ground where they belong”, and massively boost investment in renewable energy, he said.

“But the fossil fuel industry and its enablers have a special responsibility,” he said, noting the record “$4 trillion windfall” in income last year.

“Yet for every dollar it spends on oil and gas drilling and exploration, only four cents went to clean energy and carbon capture combined. Trading the future for 30 pieces of silver is immoral,” he said.

Mr. Guterres stressed that the fossil fuel industry should apply its massive resources “to drive, not obstruct” the global transition to renewable energy.

The industry currently “is not even reaching the very low operational emissions reductions targets it has set for itself,” he said.

China is the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide emissions from coal combustion by far.

In 2021, China emitted nearly eight billion metric tons of carbon dioxide (GtCO₂) from coal combustion, which accounted for more than 50 percent of the global coal emissions.

The second-largest emitter is India which produced 1.8 GtCO₂. Global coal emissions amounted to 14.98 GtCO₂ in 2021.

Since the Paris Agreement entered into force in 2016, 21 countries have set phase-out dates before 2040 for unabated coal-fired electricity generation.

As of the end of 2021, four countries had already completed their phase-outs: Belgium (2016), Austria (2020), Sweden (2020), and Portugal (2021).

Of the 17 remaining countries, 12  are from the European Union and the others are Canada, Chile, Israel, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand.

These countries accounted for only 3% of global coal power generation in 2021, and almost half of that came from Germany.

However, recent energy security concerns brought on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have caused some European countries (Austria, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany) to temporarily turn to coal-fired power.