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| Thu, 23rd Jul 2020 15:48:00 |
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Guterres confronts China over coal boom, urging a green recovery |
UN secretary general António Guterres has urged China to stop funding coal projects, warning the Paris climate agreement goals will slip out of reach if the world fails to deliver a green recovery to Covid-19.
Speaking at Tsinghua University, in Beijing, on Thursday, Guterres said the economic recovery to the coronavirus pandemic was a “make-or-break moment” for the planet. China’s actions, he said, could determine whether the world limits warming to 1.5C – the tougher target of the Paris goal on which the survival of vulnerable nations depends.
“As an economic superpower, the way in which China restores growth will have a major impact on whether we can keep 1.5C within reach,” he said during a lecture series titled “Climate governance in the post-pandemic world”.
Guterres, who has championed a green recovery to the economic fallout from Covid-19, said the trillions of dollars being spent on the economic recovery to the coronavirus pandemic could “either serve as a slingshot to hurtle climate action forward, or it can set it back many years”.
Governments have “a narrow window, but a vast opportunity” to rebuild a cleaner and fairer world, he said, urging them to end fossil fuel subsidies and the funding of coal.
“There is no such thing as clean coal, and coal should have no place in any rational recovery plan. It is deeply concerning that new coal power plants are still being planned and financed, even though renewables offer three times more jobs, and are now cheaper than coal in most countries.”
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