Polluters must pay, Guterres tells General Assembly

New York — UN secretary-general António Guterres on Tuesday urged rich countries to tax windfall profits of fossil fuel companies and use that money to help countries harmed by the climate crisis and people who are struggling with rising food and energy prices.

Addressing world leaders at the 193-member UN General Assembly, Guterres stepped up his attacks on oil and gas companies, which have seen their profits explode by tens of billions of dollars this year.

“The fossil fuel industry is feasting on hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies and windfall profits while household budgets shrink and our planet burns,” he said.

“Polluters must pay,” he added.

While Guterres again pushed developed countries to tax the fossil fuel windfall profits, this time he also used his platform to spell out where the money should be spent.

“Those funds should be redirected in two ways: to countries suffering loss and damage caused by the climate crisis; and to people struggling with rising food and energy prices,” he told the annual gathering of world leaders in New York.

Britain has passed a 25% windfall tax on oil and gas producers in the North Sea, while the EU plans to raise more than €140bn to shield consumers from soaring energy prices by taxing windfall profits from oil companies and electric generators. US Democratic legislators have discussed a similar idea, though it faces long odds in a divided Congress.

While these plans focus on redirecting windfall profits to domestic consumers, the secretary-general advocated for a tax that would be directed to the world’s most climate vulnerable countries, which have been embracing the idea.

He also said multilateral development banks “must step up and deliver” and that helping poor countries adapt to worsening climate shocks “must make up half of all climate finance”.

“Major economies are their shareholders and must make it happen.”

He warned of “cascading” climate, energy and cost-of-living crises that are “feeding on each other, compounding inequalities, creating devastating hardship, delaying the energy transition and threatening global financial meltdown”.

The UN chief told world leaders that nations are “gridlocked in colossal global dysfunction” and are not ready or willing to tackle the major challenges that threaten the future of humanity and the fate of the planet.

However, he cannot mandate action from developed countries, many of which are grappling with extreme weather, high food and energy prices and the Ukraine war. International affairs think-tank Chatham House said it “is an important signal”. 

The secretary-general also broadened his criticism of oil and gas companies to enabling industries that he said helps keep carbon pollution growing, such as banks and other financial institutions that invest in those companies and the public relations and advertising industries.

“Just as they did for the tobacco industry decades before, lobbyists and spin doctors have spewed harmful misinformation,” Guterres said. “Fossil fuel interests need to spend less time averting a PR disaster, and more time averting a planetary one.”

Earlier, the world’s youngest leader, Chile President Gabriel Boric, sounded the alarm on the risk of social unrest, reminding world leaders that the discontent that exploded locally can be repeated around the world.

In a passionate speech calling for more government accountability, Boric said at the UN General Assembly that demonstrations that led to dozens of deaths, destroyed public infrastructure and widespread vandalism in late 2019 were the result of years of injustice. Outrage over inequality and poor basic services can lead to uprisings in other countries, he said.

“I invite you all to get ahead in the search for greater social justice,” Boric said in his UN debut, triggering applause. “Distributing wealth and power in a better way should go hand in hand with sustainable growth.”

Reuters