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UN chief rebukes fossil fuel market fans as environment records break

U.N. SecretaryGeneral António Guterres stated Wednesday that countries need to face not just the fossilfuel industry, however likewise companies that support efforts to obstruct climate action.

The U.N. chief, a long time critic of oil and gas companies' function in driving environment change, called the market out for spending billions on distorting the fact, deceiving the public, and sowing doubt about environment change, while investing just a meager 2.5% of its total capital on clean energy alternatives.

He went further in a speech at the American Museum of Nature in New york city, criticizing banks along with media and public relations firms for supporting the industry's advertisements and accepting content sponsorships.

I contact these companies to stop acting as enablers to planetary damage, Guterres said in prepared remarks. Stop. handling brand-new fossil-fuel customers, from today, and set out strategies. to drop your existing ones.

Nations should ban such advertising, he said, as lots of. nations provide for tobacco and other items that have proven. harmful to human health.

The U.N. chief's remarks on World Environment Day come as. major oil and gas business have resisted against activist. shareholders advising more business environment action, and as some. U.S. lawmakers step up their probes into whether the market is. acting deceptively.

The U.S. oil industry has pushed back against claims it has. held back environment progress, with the American Petroleum. Institute calling recent probes into the sector's actions a. political distraction.

Guterres advised banks and financiers to stop financing. fossil-fuel projects, and to present public, trustworthy and. in-depth strategies to shift financing from fossil fuels to tidy. energy with clear targets for 2025 and 2030.

Over the next 18 months, Guterres said, nations require to. concentrate on slashing emissions, safeguarding people and nature from. climate extremes, boosting environment finance, and clamping down on. the fossil-fuel industry.

It is about time to put an efficient rate on carbon, and. tax the windfall earnings of fossil-fuel business, Guterres. said, repeating a call he's made consistently in line with suggestions. from a U.N. environment advisory panel issued at the U.N. climate. top COP28 in Dubai in 2015.

The panel also urged an end to fossil fuel aids, which. reached record levels last year amounting to more than $7 trillion. worldwide.

Rather, that cash could assist shift to tidy energy or. get ready for climate extremes, he said.

Environment finance is not a favor. It is basic to a. habitable future for all, he said.

(source: Reuters)