By Yemi Olakitan
In a forthright speech to political and corporate leaders in Davos on January 18, 2023, UN Secretary General António Guterres stated that the world is “looking into the eye of a Category 5 cyclone.”
At the Planet Economic Forum in the Swiss resort town, the UN chief gave a scathing assessment of the “sad status of our world” from the main stage.
“Our planet is being afflicted by a perfect storm on a number of fronts,” Guterres remarked. His list of dangers included the impending global recession, the conflict in Ukraine, widening disparities, a crisis of rising living costs, high debt levels “pressing” weaker countries, and the pandemic’s residual effects.
In the fight against global warming, Guterres claimed that “the battle is being lost” and that “a new climate nightmare” is discovered every week.
He claimed that the goal of keeping global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius beyond pre-industrial levels was “blowing up in smoke” and that a 2.8 degree increase was imminent.
The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative’s Executive Director, Alex Rafalowicz, replied, saying, “We have to halt the lies of large oil, gas, and coal firms and start collaborative action on phasing them out. As a result of the influence of fossil fuel lobbyists who are obstructing progress in favour of profit, government response to date has been fragmented and excruciatingly sluggish.
Without international collaboration to openly address all fossil fuels and related industry head-on, we cannot accomplish the goals of the Paris Agreement. A Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, which is already being demanded by nation states, legislators, Nobel Laureates, and sub-national governments, can close a glaring gap.