UN chief urges financial institutions to stop funding fossil fuels

UNITED NATIONS, June 14 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called on all financial institutions to ditch fossil fuel financing.

In remarks delivered via video to the Austrian World Summit in Vienna, the top UN official said that renewable energy was "the peace plan of the 21st century" and called on fossil fuel finance to be abandoned wholesale, in favor of the green alternative.

"I call on all financial actors to abandon fossil fuel finance and invest in renewable energy," he said.

"The only true path to energy security, stable power prices, prosperity and a livable planet lies in abandoning polluting fossil fuels, especially coal, and accelerating the renewables-based energy transition," he said.

The UN chief warned that the window to prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis "is closing fast," and to keep the 1.5-degree goal of limiting global warming within reach, emissions must be cut by 45 percent by 2030, with net zero emissions by 2050.

"But current national commitments will lead to an increase by almost 14 percent this decade," he said, adding that energy-related CO2 emissions grew 6 percent last year, "when they should be falling."

"Let me be blunt: most national climate pledges are simply not good enough. This is not just my view. Science and public opinion are giving timid climate policies a giant fail mark," said the secretary-general.

As a result, Guterres warned grave consequences would follow, with almost half of the world's population already in danger.

In the paradox, he said, cheaper, more reliable and fairer options for energy should have been developed sooner.

"Had we invested massively in renewable energy in the past, we would not be so dramatically at the mercy of the instability of fossil fuel markets."

Over the past decade, solar energy and batteries prices have dropped by 85 percent, while wind power has dropped in price by 55 percent.

"On the other hand, oil and gas have reached record price levels. And investment in renewables creates three times more jobs than fossil fuels," the secretary-general said.

To counter today's new economic shocks, he reiterated his five-point plan for action on renewable energy, which include making renewable energy technology a global public good, improving global access to supply chains for renewable energy technologies components and raw materials, and reforming the red tape that is holding back the renewable production revolution.