The global food, energy and financial crises unleashed by the war in Ukraine have hit countries already rebounding from the pandemic and climate crisis, reversing the growing convergence between developed and developing countries, Antonio Guterres said. “Inequalities are still growing within countries, but now they are growing in a morally unacceptable way between north and south, and this is creating a gap that can be very dangerous in terms of peace and security.” Guterres, who spoke to the Guardian at the UN ocean conference in his native Lisbon, Portugal this week, said his biggest concern was how global problems were widening the gap between rich and poor. “What’s worrying is that we’re living in a perfect storm. Because all crises contribute to the dramatic increase in inequality in the world and the serious deterioration of the living conditions of the most vulnerable populations. “All of this escalated to a situation in which a world that seemed to be converging between developing countries and developed countries, even as inequality grew in countries north and south. Now we’re back to a divergence.” Earlier this month, the head of the UN’s World Food Program warned that dozens of countries dependent on wheat from Russia and Ukraine are at risk of protests, riots and political violence as global food prices rise. Of all the crises facing the world, the climate crisis was the most vital, Guterres said. “That’s why it’s so worrying that the war in Ukraine has largely kept climate action out of focus. We must do everything we can to put the climate issue back at the top of our collective agenda. It’s more than just the planet, it’s the human species that’s at risk too.” Antonio Guterres speaking at the UN ocean conference in Lisbon this week. Photo: Pedro Nunes/Reuters While many important issues were discussed at the Cop26 UN climate conference in Glasgow last November, the central question of how to reduce emissions was not seriously discussed and continues to be ignored, he said. There was agreement, he said, that to keep warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, deep emissions reductions of 45 percent by 2030 compared to 2010 levels are needed. But we are moving in the wrong direction, he added. “The truth is if you look at the national determined contributions we have today and what was announced before and immediately after Cop, we’re still on track for a 14% increase in emissions. “We risk sleepwalking to kill the 1.5C target. “Something is happening, but it’s too little too late. If we want to keep 1.5 alive, we need to have a huge determination to reduce emissions as quickly as possible.” All indicators suggest that the effects of the climate crisis are accelerating faster than the worst predictions of a few years ago, he said. Earlier this month, Guterres hit out at fossil fuel companies, describing them and the banks that finance them as having “humanity around their necks” and blamed governments for failing to rein in fossil fuels and in many cases trying to increase natural gas production. . oil and even coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel. Asked about the pushback from EU countries that have announced plans to reopen coal-fired power plants in response to Russia’s restrictions on natural gas flows to Europe, Guterres said: “Coal is the number one enemy of action on climate”. The UN secretary-general called on Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries to phase out all coal plants by 2030 and other countries by 2040. “I hope that these examples of countries where some coal will be burned will be for a very short period of time,” he said Germany, a country heavily dependent on Russian gas, has announced it will reopen coal-fired plants to maintain supplies, following Russia’s restrictions on natural gas flows. France has signaled it may reopen a coal station because of the situation in Ukraine. Guterres said the war had highlighted our dependence on fossil fuels. “It is volatility in the fossil fuel market that creates these dramatic effects on rising energy prices and contributes to rising food prices and the extremely difficult economic situation of many developing countries. If the world had invested massively as it should have in the last decade in renewable energy sources, we would be in a completely different situation today.” We must learn lessons from the past, he said. At the UN conference, attended by world leaders and heads of state, the heads of small island developing states such as Palau, Fiji and Tonga spoke about the devastating effects on their countries of increasing hurricanes and rising sea levels. Vanuatu’s climate change minister, Silas Bule Melve, said the climate crisis was the single biggest threat” to the country’s efforts to expand its blue economy. On Monday, Guterres said the world was in the midst of an “ocean emergency” and condemned the “selfishness” of some countries that were blocking efforts to reach a long-awaited treaty to protect the world’s oceans. A long-standing promise, made in 2009 and highlighted at Cop26, by rich countries to provide £100 billion a year in climate finance to the developing world has yet to materialise. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST While that funding was a small fraction of what was needed, the failure to keep the promise to provide it, year after year, has added to the divide between rich and poor countries, Guterres said. “It probably won’t happen in 2022,” he added. “This makes developing countries feel that there is not really a strong commitment of solidarity. Small island developing states feel this with particular intensity. “There is a danger that the next police officer will be adversely affected by this disillusionment of developing countries and a lack of confidence and trust in the seriousness of the developed world’s support. And that would be tragic because we really need to mobilize everyone. We need everyone committed if we want to keep 1.5C alive.” Asked what gave him hope, Guterres said he had met many young people in Lisbon, part of a youth forum aimed at developing ideas for solutions to ocean and climate emergencies. Their depth of knowledge, clarity, commitment to their proposals and enthusiasm “is my best hope,” he said. “The young people are engaged. We are seeing more and more cities, more and more civil society and even more sectors of the private sector getting involved. Governments are now probably the slowest moving entities.”
