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By FRANK JORDANS
BERLIN (AP) — Countries scrambling to replace Russian oil, gas and coal supplies with any available alternative may fuel the world’s “mutually assured destruction” through climate change, the head of the United Nations warned Monday.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the ‘all-of-the-above’ strategy now being pursued by major economies to end fossil fuel imports from Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine could kill hopes of keeping global warming below dangerous levels.
“Countries could become so consumed by the immediate fossil fuel supply gap that they neglect or knee-cap policies to cut fossil fuel use,” he said by video at an event organized by the Economist weekly. “This is madness. Addiction to fossil fuels is mutually assured destruction.”
Germany, Russia’s largest energy client, wants to increase oil supplies from the Gulf. It also wants to speed up the construction of terminals for receiving liquefied gas.
In the United States, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki earlier this month said the war in Ukraine was a reason for American oil and gas producers to “go get more supply out of the ground in our own country.”
Guterres said that “instead of hitting the brakes on the decarbonization of the global economy, now is the time to put the pedal to the metal towards a renewable energy future.”
His comments were made as scientists from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change began meeting for two weeks to finish their latest report on the world’s efforts in curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
A separate report was released last month. Half of humanity is already at risk from climate change.This will increase with every tenth degree of warming.
Guterres said the Paris climate accord’s goal of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) was “on life support” because countries aren’t doing enough to drive down emissions.
He stated that temperatures are already 1.2C higher than they were before industrialization. To keep the Paris target alive, global emissions must be reduced by 45% by 2030.
However, after a dip in 2020 due to pandemics, emissions rose sharply last year.
“If we continue with more of the same, we can kiss 1.5 goodbye,” he said. “Even 2 degrees may be out of reach. And that would be catastrophe.”
Guterres urged the world’s biggest developed and emerging economies to make meaningful emissions cuts, including by swiftly ending their dependence on coal — the most polluting fossil fuel — and holding private companies that continue to support its use to account
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Follow the AP’s coverage on climate change at https://apnews.com/hub/climate
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