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United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres blasted fossil fuel companies this week for their attempts to justify continued oil and gas production as “incompatible with human survival.”
The energy industry’s aim to deal with the emissions causing global warming by capturing and storing them, rather than phasing out production, is undermining climate progress, Guterres told the Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany.
“The problem is not simply fossil fuel emissions. It’s fossil fuels, period,” he said. “We are hurtling towards disaster, eyes wide open, with far too many willing to bet it all on wishful thinking, unproven technologies and silver bullet solutions.”
Guterres poured cold water on the idea that carbon capture and storage technology will allow for continued oil and gas production, saying it would only make them “more efficient planet wreckers.”
The Secretary General also asked financial institutions to stop financing fossil fuel projects, calling on banks that already have started to do so “not [to] relent in the face of attacks on progress.”
His comments came as leaders from nearly 200 countries wrapped up two weeks of climate talks in Bonn, five months ahead of the COP28 climate summit in major oil producer United Arab Emirates.
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