Russia Ukraine war must not fuel climate destruction, says UN chief
- Nations replacing Russian energy supplies may fuel world’s ‘mutually assured destruction’ says UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
- He said ‘instead of hitting brakes on decarbonisation, now is time to put pedal to the metal towards a renewable energy future’
Countries scrambling to replace Russian oil, gas and coal supplies with any available alternative may fuel the world’s “mutually assured destruction” through climate change, the head of the United Nations warned on Monday.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the “all-of-the-above” strategy now being pursued by major economies to end fossil fuel imports from Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine could kill hopes of keeping global warming below dangerous levels.
“Countries could become so consumed by the immediate fossil fuel supply gap that they neglect or kneecap policies to cut fossil fuel use,” he said by video at an event organised by The Economist. “This is madness. Addiction to fossil fuels is mutually assured destruction.”
Germany, one of Russia’s biggest energy customers, wants to increase its supply of oil from the Gulf and speed up the building of terminals to receive liquefied natural gas.
In the United States, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki earlier this month said the war in Ukraine was a reason for American oil and gas producers to “go get more supply out of the ground in our own country”.
Guterres said that “instead of hitting the brakes on the decarbonisation of the global economy, now is the time to put the pedal to the metal towards a renewable energy future”.