First it was a ban on fossil fuel advertising.Now United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres is calling for a special tax on oil and gas companies to fund the so-called ‘energy transition’ in poorer countries.Guterres is fond of calling oil companies “the Godfathers of climate chaos,” an oblique reference to Mafia cartels.“Climate change is the mother of all stealth taxes paid by everyday people and vulnerable countries and communities,” he said in a speech in New York on Wednesday. “Meanwhile, the godfathers of climate chaos — the fossil fuel industry — rake in record profits and feast off trillions in taxpayer-funded subsidies.”.Guterres has called for those funds to be redirected to countries suffering loss and “damage” caused by climate change and to people struggling with rising food and energy prices.“We cannot accept a future where the rich are protected in air-conditioned bubbles, while the rest of humanity is lashed by lethal weather in unliveable lands,” he said.“It’s time to put an effective price on carbon and tax the windfall profits of fossil fuel companies,” Guterres said.It came at the same time he called for media companies to stop accepting money for fossil fuel advertising — all of it — not just claims of enhanced environmental performance..In the speech, coinciding with World Environment Day, the UN chief drew on new data and projections to make a case against Big Oil, specifically the European Union’s Copernicus service which said that last month was the hottest May ever, marking the 12th straight monthly record high.Likewise, the World Meteorological Organization said the global mean near-surface temperature for each year from 2024 to 2028 is expected to range between 1.1 and 1.9 degrees Celsius hotter than at the start of the industrial era compared to the Paris climate accord target of 1.5 Celsius.
First it was a ban on fossil fuel advertising.Now United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres is calling for a special tax on oil and gas companies to fund the so-called ‘energy transition’ in poorer countries.Guterres is fond of calling oil companies “the Godfathers of climate chaos,” an oblique reference to Mafia cartels.“Climate change is the mother of all stealth taxes paid by everyday people and vulnerable countries and communities,” he said in a speech in New York on Wednesday. “Meanwhile, the godfathers of climate chaos — the fossil fuel industry — rake in record profits and feast off trillions in taxpayer-funded subsidies.”.Guterres has called for those funds to be redirected to countries suffering loss and “damage” caused by climate change and to people struggling with rising food and energy prices.“We cannot accept a future where the rich are protected in air-conditioned bubbles, while the rest of humanity is lashed by lethal weather in unliveable lands,” he said.“It’s time to put an effective price on carbon and tax the windfall profits of fossil fuel companies,” Guterres said.It came at the same time he called for media companies to stop accepting money for fossil fuel advertising — all of it — not just claims of enhanced environmental performance..In the speech, coinciding with World Environment Day, the UN chief drew on new data and projections to make a case against Big Oil, specifically the European Union’s Copernicus service which said that last month was the hottest May ever, marking the 12th straight monthly record high.Likewise, the World Meteorological Organization said the global mean near-surface temperature for each year from 2024 to 2028 is expected to range between 1.1 and 1.9 degrees Celsius hotter than at the start of the industrial era compared to the Paris climate accord target of 1.5 Celsius.
