UN Secretary-General António Guterres had harsh words for countries that are using their response to the Russia-Ukraine conflict as a means of pushing energy strategies that still rely on fossil fuels. “Countries could become so consumed by the immediate fossil fuel supply gap that they neglect or knee-cap policies to cut fossil fuel use. This is madness,” Guterres said in a keynote address Monday at The Economist Sustainability Week event. “Addiction to fossil fuels is mutually assured destruction,” he said. Guterres particularly took issue with “all of the above” policies that tap every energy source, no matter how damaging those fossil fuels may be.
That “all of the above” strategy is a hallmark of Sen. Joe Manchin’s pollution playbook and was one of the main reasons he chose not to support Sarah Bloom Raskin’s nomination as vice chair of supervision for the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors. Raskin ultimately withdrew from the nomination process and slammed the fossil fuel-loving Republicans (and Manchin) who put her in an impossible position while at the same time refusing to back down on climate change. The U.S. is teeming with politicians and policies who do little to advance the Glasgow Climate Pact. Sadly, the Biden administration also appears to be standing in the way of its own agreed upon climate goals. After a judge allowed the administration to continue using the “social cost of climate” metric to determine environmental regulations, it was announced that oil and gas development on federal lands would also resume.
“With this ruling, the department continues its planning for responsible oil and gas development on America’s public lands and waters," Interior spokesperson Melissa Schwartz told Reuters. More than 9,000 oil and gas permits sit unused as of the end of last year. They make up a mix of permits issued by the Trump administration and the Biden administration. The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts this year and next will see record-high levels of crude oil production—something Guterres explicitly spoke out against. “We need to fix the broken global energy mix,” Guterres said. “Instead of hitting the brakes on the decarbonization of the global economy, now is the time to put the pedal to the metal towards a renewable energy future.”
Guterres explicitly called for the ending of oil and gas exploration and called coal a “stupid investment.” But he did not give up on the hope of properly mitigating climate change so the worst effects of the crisis would not become a reality. “Our strength lies in incrementally building up scientific information over a period of time and getting it bought into by governments as well as scientists,” he said. By coming up with comprehensive plans to swiftly phase out coal; decarbonizing industries like shipping, aviation, steel, and cement; and having wealthier countries follow through on their promises to assist developing nations with a just, green transition, “that’s how we will move the 1.5-degree goal from life support to the recovery room,” Guterres said.