Guterres urged governments to make climate-friendlier action a condition for bailing out airlines and others (AFP Photo/KARIM SAHIB) |
Governments
should exit coal, stop subsidising other fossil fuels, and pressure polluting
industries to clean up their act in exchange for bailing them out, the UN
Secretary-General told an International Energy Agency conference by video link.
"Today
I would like to urge all leaders to choose the clean energy route for three
vital reasons -- health, science and economics," Guterres said.
"Bailout
support to sectors such as industry, aviation and shipping should be
conditioned on alignment with the goals of the Paris Agreement," he said,
referring to the 2015 treaty that commits signatories to capping global warming
at 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
"We
need to stop wasting money on fossil fuel subsidies and place a price on
carbon," Guterres said, adding that "coal has no place in COVID-19
recovery plans".
He also
called on investors "to demand that companies reveal transition plans to
reach net zero emissions" and said that renewables offered "three
times more jobs than the fossil fuel industry".
Governments
across the world have pledged unprecedented sums to support their economies to
cope with the fallout from COVID-19, with many politicians and NGOs calling for
green policies to become an integral part of the spending plans.
The
European Parliament, for example, has urged EU governments to put "the
green deal at the core" of their proposed 750-billion-euro recovery plan.
In Germany,
where the government has agreed to rescue flagship airline Lufthansa, the
environment minister said that climate-friendlier policies by the airline would
be part of the deal.
In
neighbouring Austria, the government made "necessary measures in terms of
climate protection" a condition for bailing out Austrian Airlines.
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