“We need to tax pollution, not people”, and “end subsidies for fossil fuels,” Secretary-General António Guterres told the World Summit of the R20 Coalition, a UN-supported environmental organization, founded by former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The idea that subsidizing fossil fuels is a way to improve people’s lives could not be more wrong, said the UN chief in the Austrian capital, Vienna, because it means spending taxpayers’ money to “boost hurricanes, to spread droughts, to melt glaciers, to bleach corals: to destroy the world.”
Mr. Guterres went on to call for the decarbonization of urban infrastructure, a halt to coal plants, and the promotion of sustainable consumption and production: “in short, we need a green economy, not a grey economy.”
In the lead up to the UN Climate Summit this September, the Secretary-General has enlisted the President of France, the Prime Minister of Jamaica and the Emir of Qatar to mobilize international support to secure the $100 billion goal agreed by UN Member States at the Paris climate conference in 2015, necessary for advancing climate mitigation and adaptation in the developing world.
Investors need to stop “financing pollution”, scale up green ventures and increase lending for low-carbon solutions”, he insisted, adding that the private sector and investment communities must support a “bold and ambitious climate agenda”, because climate action is not only good for people and the planet, it can also be good for business.
The R20 Austrian World Summit is a long-term initiative to help regions, states and cities to implement the Sustainable Development Goals and meet the global climate protection targets outlined in the Paris Agreement to limit climate change. R20 aims to develop the summit to become the most important European meeting place for climate action solutions.
Original source: UN News
Published on 28 May 2019
