"Doubling down on fossil fuels is absurd", given that solar and wind power are the cheapest forms of new electricity, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres told the UN Cop 29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan today.
The "economic imperative is clearer and more compelling — with every renewables roll out, every innovation, and every price drop", Guterres added. Global investment in renewables and grids last year overtook the amount spent on fossil fuels for the first time, he noted.
"The clean energy revolution is here. No group, no business and no government can stop it," Guterres said.
Guterres and Simon Stiell, head of the UNFCCC — the UN's climate body — today both gestured to geopolitical challenges. Cop 29 is focused on climate finance — already a fraught topic — and environmental groups have expressed concern about the impact on climate action of Donald Trump's re-election.
The UNFCCC process "is strong, it's robust and it will endure", Stiell said today.
Guterres and Stiell also emphasised the financial implications of failing to cut emissions or address climate change.
"The climate crisis is fast becoming an economy-killer", Stiell said. "Unless all countries can slash emissions deeply, every country and every household will be hammered even harder than they currently are," he added.
The G20 group of countries should lead on emissions reduction, Guterres said. And both he — warning against "a tale of two transitions" — and Stiell called for action on climate finance. Countries must decide at Cop 29 on the next stage of a climate finance goal. Developed countries agreed to deliver $100bn/yr to developing countries over 2020-25, but agreement is yet to be reached on the next iteration.
Guterres called for more concessional public finance, higher lending capacity for multilateral development banks (MDBs), greater transparency, and for "tapping innovative sources, particularly levies on shipping, aviation, and fossil fuel extraction. Polluters must pay", he said.
