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António Guterres in Egypt: »We must have zero tolerance for greenwashing«
Photo: MOHAMED ABD EL GHANY / REUTERS
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has sharply criticized corporations in the oil and coal industry at the climate conference in Egypt.
Some of them deliberately colored their actually devastating climate balances beautifully.
Unfair self-commitments to net zero greenhouse gas emissions, which do not cover core products, "poison our planet," he said, according to the text of the speech, as quoted by the dpa news agency.
Companies would have to fully offset all climate-damaging emissions, i.e. direct, indirect and also those from their supply chains.
There should be no tolerance for greenwashing, he warned.
"Net-zero commitments must not be a mere public relations exercise if we want to win the fight against climate change," he wrote on Twitter.
"I call on all heads of state and government to offer non-state actors equal conditions for the transition to a just net zero future," the Portuguese is quoted as saying.
False promises of climate neutrality are despicable.
Such cheating could push the world over the "climate cliff".
"Net-zero emissions" means only causing as many carbon dioxide emissions as can be compensated for - for example by underground storage of CO₂ or by afforestation.
At the previous UN climate conference, Guterres commissioned a council of experts to develop standards and guidelines for climate protection promises in order to curb greenwashing by states and companies.
Greenwashing refers to strategies with which companies or states untruthfully present themselves as particularly environmentally friendly.
The 17 experts now presented recommendations in Egypt.
Among other things, they propose that large companies in particular report in detail on their progress in climate protection every year.
Video message from Zelenskyj
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized the importance of peace for climate protection in a video message.
"There can be no effective climate policy without peace in the world," he said.
Last year one could not have imagined it, but this year the central question is what would happen if there was a nuclear accident at Europe's largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhia.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has distracted world governments from efforts to combat climate change.
“There are still many who don't take the climate agenda seriously,” said Zelenskyj.
The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine has led to an energy crisis that is forcing some to turn to coal as an energy source again.
In addition, he would have brought a food crisis into the world and destroyed five million hectares of forest, said the Ukrainian president.
"I invite you all to support our initiative on the impact of military action on the climate."
China's special envoy on climate issues Xie Zhenhua, meanwhile, said Beijing is determined to achieve carbon neutrality and believes multilateralism and cooperation are key to solving global climate change.
"Regardless of how much the external environment changes and how many challenges we face, China is firmly committed to achieving the vision of carbon neutrality," he told delegates at the climate summit.
Meanwhile, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at COP27 called for "loss and damage" to be a key focus of the conference.
In this way, the urgent humanitarian needs of those "who are caught in a crisis of public financing and who still have to finance climate catastrophes on their own" could be met." It should also be clearly defined what counts as climate finance.
"The Global North has a duty to understand our plight," Sharif said.
Heavy rains and floods raged in Pakistan in the summer, killing well over 1,000 people and many their homes.
Senegal's President Macky Sall has called for more aid to Africa so that the mostly poor countries on the continent can adapt to climate change.
"Ambitious decisions" would have to be made, said Sall, who also chairs the African Union.
Sall called the current goal of $100 billion a year in aid for all developing countries worldwide an insufficient "minimum commitment."
Africa alone needs around 86 billion dollars a year to achieve its adaptation goals.
One cannot expect the continent's countries to finance the mechanisms to adapt to climate change and reduce their emissions themselves by taking on large debts, he emphasized.
Above all, investments in a climate-resilient agricultural economy are necessary so that Africa can feed itself and be less dependent on food aid, according to Sall.
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The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has called on countries to fight climate change more quickly.
“The global fossil fuel crisis must be a game changer.
So let's not take the 'Highway to Hell', but earn the clean ticket to heaven," she said, referring to the statements made by UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday.
At the world climate conference on Tuesday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz promoted his idea of a global climate club of countries with ambitious goals in combating global warming.
He invited all states worldwide to the Egyptian Sharm al-Sheikh.
At the COP27 world climate conference in Egypt, scheduled for November 18, discussions will be held on how the goal agreed in the Paris Agreement of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees can still be achieved.
ani/Reuters/dpa