UN Secretary General: Replacing Russian fuel is madness and “mutually assured destruction”

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the rapid replacement of Russian fuel with coal and gas is insane and threatens global climate goals. It is reported by TASS.

As leaders rush to cut their dependence on Russian fuel, Guterres said, this increases the consumption of coal and natural gas, which in turn becomes an obstacle to reaching the Paris climate agreement and poses a serious threat to the planet. The Paris Agreement, he recalled, is designed to keep global average temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius, preferably below 1.5 degrees. To achieve this, carbon emissions must be halved by the end of the 2020s. However, according to him, the current environmental policy will lead to the fact that emissions will increase by 14%.

Guterres believes that in the search for a replacement for Russian gas, leaders of states can neglect the policy of reducing the use of fossil fuels or significantly limit it. “This is madness. Dependence on fossil fuels is mutually assured destruction,” he concluded. The UN Secretary General argues that world leaders need to phase out all fossil fuels, especially coal, as soon as possible.

Earlier, António Guterres called for preventing a “hurricane of hunger” due to the situation in Ukraine. He stated that due to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, there is a disruption in supply chains, which causes a rise in prices for food, fuel and transport.

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the start of a special military operation in Ukraine. The head of the Russian Defense Ministry, General of the Army Sergei Shoigu, said that the main task of this operation is to protect Russia from a military threat from Western countries that “are trying to use the Ukrainian people in the fight against our country.” In response to this decision, sanctions began to be imposed on Russia. The Russian and Ukrainian delegations held a series of talks on the situation.