As the planet burns and household spending soars, “the fossil fuel industry is feasting on hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies and windfall profits”. Once again, Antonio Guterres did not mince his words during his opening speech at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, September 20. The Secretary General called on rich states to tax these profits in order to redistribute them to countries that are victims of the consequences of climate change and to populations affected by inflation.
The coal, oil and gas industries – energies responsible for climate change – “should spend less time on advertising to avoid a communication disaster and more on avoiding a planetary disaster”, launched Antonio Guterres again. The UN boss also slammed political leaders, denouncing climate action “put on hold” whereas “We have a date with climate catastrophe”.
After a summer marked by a succession of extreme events, the fight against climate change is trying to find a place in a tense diplomatic agenda, and will occupy part of the discussions of the General Assembly this week. “Countries are in defensive mode, analyzes Rachel Kyte, Dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University (United States). There is an erosion of political momentum for climate in a world that has become more complicated”, with the war in Ukraine, inflation and the energy, food and debt crises. This General Assembly should “connecting all crises together” et “highlight common responses, such as funding”judge for his part Laurence Tubiana, director of the European Climate Foundation.
Compensation for “loss and damage”
States are expected as a priority on an issue that is now unavoidable in climate negotiations: that of “loss and damage”, the irreversible damage caused by the multiplication of extreme events. With the deadly floods in Pakistan, which claimed 1,500 lives and caused nearly 30 billion dollars (as many euros) in damage, “We can no longer put this subject under the rugadvances Ulka Kelkar, climate director of the World Resources Institute (WRI) for India. We expect solidarity from developed countries, recognition of their historic responsibility for climate change. »
The developing countries, the most affected but also the least responsible for global warming, are asking for a new specific financing mechanism to enable them to cope with this damage, which the developed countries are refusing for the moment. The issue will be at the center of the next world climate conference, COP27, to be held in Egypt in November. It will be driven in particular by Pakistan, which this year chairs the “G77 and China” negotiating group, representing 134 countries from the South.
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