Photo: TWD
By Patryk Krych | The World Daily | JUNE 12th 2021
According to UN secretary general António Guterres, the world’s climate may soon be reaching a point of no return, as he lamented over the fact that countries have been investing more money into fossil fuels than greener energy since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Guterres warned that by not by not emerging from the pandemic crisis with greener economies and investments, as well as a better focus to moving away from fossil fuels, wealthier countries globally were thus risking an “unforgivable lost opportunity.”
A recent analysis of the G7 countries had revealed that some of its wealthier nations such as the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, France, Germany and Canada had all collectively put over $189 billion into fossil fuel support and production since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. This is well over $40 billion more than has been invested into renewable energy and environmentalism.
“I’m more than disappointed, I’m worried about the consequences,” Guterres told the Guardian. “We need to make sure we reverse the trends, not maintain the trends. It’s now clear we are coming to a point of no return.”
He added that: “To spend these trillions of dollars and not use this occasion to reverse the trends and massively invest in the green economy will be an unforgivable lost opportunity.”
This statement comes ahead of the G7 meeting in Cornwall that’s set to be had this weekend, where industrial leaders are going to discuss such issues as coronavirus recovery, vaccinations, as well as the ever-growing climate crisis. According to Lord Stern, the former World Bank chief economist and former adviser to the UK Treasury, all of these issues need to in some way be tied closer together in order to create a greener recovery plan.
“We need strong investment to recover in a strong and sustainable way,” he said. “We want to avoid a consumption-led recovery, like the Roaring 20s of 100 years ago. That would be a mistake. What we really need is an investment-led recovery, if it is to be sustained and sustainable.”
Multiple G7 leaders, such as the British PM Boris Johnson and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have also expressed their beliefs about the importance of making the climate crisis a central factor to recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
It may be too late for this soon, however, as economies are slowly beginning to recover and according to the International Energy Agency, the amount of planet-heating emissions are expected to see a massive jump to what may be regarded as the second-biggest historical annual emission rise sometime in 2021.
