Climate Change

Polluters Must Pay, Says UN Chief, Urges Taxes To Help Climate Victims

U.N. chief Antonio Guterres pushed developed countries to tax the fossil fuel windfall profits and use that money to help countries affected by the climate crisis and people who are struggling with rising food and energy prices

Published

on

While addressing world leaders at the 193-member U.N. General Assembly, U.N. chief Antonio Guterres spoke about climate crisis

United Nations: U.N. chief Antonio Guterres on Tuesday (September 20) urged rich countries to tax windfall profits of fossil fuel companies and use that money to help countries harmed by the climate crisis and people who are struggling with rising food and energy prices. Addressing world leaders at the 193-member U.N. General Assembly, the climate activist secretary-general stepped up his attacks on oil and gas companies, which have seen their profits explode by tens of billions of dollars. He said,

The fossil fuel industry is feasting on hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies and windfall profits while household budgets shrink and our planet burns.

Also Read: Climate Change, Salinity And Menstrual Health Problems: Sundarbans Women Battle Triple Whammy

While Mr Guterres again pushed developed countries to tax the fossil fuel windfall profits, this time he also used his bully pulpit to spell out where the money should be spent.

“Those funds should be redirected in two ways: to countries suffering loss and damage caused by the climate crisis; and to people struggling with rising food and energy prices,” he told the annual gathering of world leaders in New York.

Britain has passed a 25% windfall tax on oil and gas producers in the North Sea, while U.S. lawmakers have discussed a similar idea, though it faces long odds in Congress.

“Polluters must pay,” Mr Guterres said.

He also said multilateral development banks “must step up and deliver” and that helping poor countries adapt to worsening climate shocks “must make up half of all climate finance.”

Mr Guterres added: “Major economies are their shareholders and must make it happen.”

Also Read: Temperature Expected To Go Up By 2.2 Degrees Celsius By 2050 In Assam

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.

[corona_data_new]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Exit mobile version