The United Nations alarmist-in-chief António Guterres said this week humanity must urgently find solutions to climate change because it “has opened the gates of hell.”
“Horrendous heat is having horrendous effects,” Guterres warned in his opening remarks Wednesday at the U.N. Climate Ambition Summit in New York.
“Distraught farmers watching crops carried away by floods; sweltering temperatures spawning disease; and thousands fleeing in fear as historic fires rage,” the Portuguese socialist intoned.
“Climate action is dwarfed by the scale of the challenge,” he inveighed, and humanity is heading towards a 2.8 degree temperature rise ushering in “a dangerous and unstable world.”
Yet some brave souls are working toward a solution, “fighters and trailblazers” forging a path forward, he noted hopefully.
These climate pioneers include activists “refusing to be silenced,” indigenous peoples “defending their lands from climate extremes,” chief executives “transforming their business models,” and financiers “funding a just transition,” he declared.
They also include mayors “moving towards to a zero-carbon future” and governments “working to stamp out fossil fuels and protect vulnerable communities,” he added.
Pulling no punches, Guterres said the move from fossil fuels to renewables is being hampered by the “foot-dragging, arm-twisting and the naked greed of entrenched interests raking in billions from fossil fuels.”
The U.N. chief said he has put forward an “Acceleration Agenda” calling on governments of developed countries to “reach net zero as close as possible to 2040” and emerging economies “as close as possible to 2050.”
Somehow the acceleration agenda will bring about a fair, equitable and just energy transition “while providing affordable electricity to all,” Guterres insists, a task historically accomplished only by fossil fuels.
To whip global warming, countries must “exit coal,” end fossil fuel subsidies, and set “ambitious renewable energy goals in line with the 1.5 degree limit,” he asserted.
The U.N. Acceleration Agenda also calls for climate justice, he declared, insisting that the poorest nations “have every right to be angry” because they are suffering “from a climate crisis they did nothing to create.”
The hyperbolic rhetoric employed by Guterres to decry global warming has heightened in pitch and intensity, making him sound more and more unhinged.
Just two months ago, he declared “the era of global warming has ended, the era of global boiling has arrived,” a curiously meaningless statement.
Earlier this month, Guterres said the “dog days of summer are not just barking, they are biting,” adding the “climate breakdown has begun.”
Guterres placed the blame for the climate apocalypse on “our fossil fuel addiction,” insisting that “climate is imploding faster than we can cope.”