‘Our Fossil Fuel Addiction Is A Frankenstein Monster’: UN Chief Calls for More Climate Effort
Remarks come as Trump withdraws US from global agreement
The international community can still blunt the effects of climate change, but nations must do more.
That’s according to Antonio Guterres, secretary general of the United Nations, who spoke Wednesday at the World Economic Forum, an annual gathering of investors, business leaders, political leaders, celebrities and journalists.
The remarks by Guterres are particularly notable as they came just days after Donald Trump came into office once again as president and withdrew the United States from the landmark Paris climate agreement.
The global Paris accord is aimed at limiting long-term global warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels or, failing that, keeping temperatures at least well below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels.
And Trump has long spurned most other efforts to combat the effects of climate change while fiercely advocating for the extraction of fossil fuels like oil, and which are a primary cause of climate change.
“I recently saw an analysis that exposed the grim irony 13 of the world’s biggest ports for oil super tankers will be overwhelmed by rising sea levels,” Guterres said. “Rising seas which are caused by rising temperatures, and rising temperatures which are overwhelmingly caused by burning fossil fuels.
“Our fossil fuel addiction is a Frankenstein monster sparing nothing and no one all around us,” he added. “We see clear signs that the monster has become master. We just endured the hottest year and the hottest decade in history. 2024 is likely to be the first calendar year that pushed back past 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
“Now breaching this limit does not mean the long-term goal of keeping the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees is shot,” Guterres said. “It means we need to fight even harder to get on track, especially when we are seeing today sea level rise, heat waves, floods, storms, droughts and wildfires. And that are just a preview of the horror movie to come.”
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