09/17/2023 06:59:21

Special UN summit: Protests, week of talk turn up heat on fossil fuels and global warming

As a record-smashing and deadly hot summer draws to a close, the United Nations and the city that hosts it are focusing on climate change and the burning of coal, oil and natural gas that causes it. It features a special UN summit and a week of protests and talk-heavy events involving leaders from business, health, politics and the arts. Even a royal prince — William — is getting in on the action

 


 

The heat is about to be turned up on fossil fuels, the United States and President Joe Biden.

As a record-smashing and deadly hot summer draws to a close, the United Nations and the city that hosts it are focusing on climate change and the burning of coal, oil and natural gas that causes it. It features a special UN summit and a week of protests and talk-heavy events involving leaders from business, health, politics and the arts. Even a royal prince — William — is getting in on the action.

The annual Climate Week, which coincides with the UN General Assembly, kicks off Sunday with tens of thousands of people expected in the "March to End Fossil Fuels" Manhattan rally, one of hundreds of worldwide protests.

This week "is the start of an incredible pressure cooker that we are all part of," said Jean Su, a march organizer and energy justice director for the Center for Biological Diversity. "It is coming from the top down, from that chief of the United Nations and now it is coming from bottom up in over 400 distributed actions across the world."
Much of the heat is coming from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who is convening a new Climate Ambition Summit on Wednesday that has a special twist: Only leaders from nations that bring new and meaningful action will be allowed to speak. And the UN isn't saying yet who will get that chance.

It won't be Biden, who is speaking Tuesday at the UN, the White House said. Nor will it be the leaders of China, the United Kingdom, Russia or France – all major players in the development and use of fossil fuels -- who won't even be in New York.

Guterres has repeatedly aimed his criticism at fossil fuels, calling them "incompatible with human survival." He and scientific reports out of the United Nations have emphasized that the only way to curb warming and meet international goals is to "phase out" fossil fuels.

Phase-out is a term that world leaders in past climate negotiations and meetings of large economic powers have refused to back, instead opting for watered-down phrases such as "phase down" of unabated coal, allowing fossil use if its emissions are somehow captured and stored. The president of the upcoming international climate negotiations in Dubai is an oil executive from the United Arab Emirates and will be speaking at Wednesday's summit, though his dual role has upset activists and some scientists.

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