U.N. Secretary General António Guterres called Wednesday for a “windfall” tax on profits of fossil fuel companies to help pay for the fight against global warming, decrying them as the “godfathers of climate chaos.”
Guterres took particular aim at the carbon-spewing industry and appealed to media and technology companies to stop taking advertising from its biggest players, as has been done in some places with Big Tobacco.
Guterres’ comments in a bare-knuckled speech timed for World Environment Day came as the European Commission’s climate watching agency reported that last month was the hottest May ever—marking the 12th straight monthly record high.
The European Union’s Copernicus climate change service, a global reference for tracking world temperatures, cited an average surface air temperature of 15.9 C (60.6 F) last month—or 1.52 C higher than the estimated May average before industrial times.
The burning of fossil fuels —oil, gas and coal—is the main contributor to global warming caused by human activity.
Meanwhile, the U.N. weather agency predicted an 80% chance that average global temperatures will surpass the 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) target set in the landmark Paris climate accord of 2015.
The World Meteorological Organization, or WMO, said that the global mean near-surface temperature for each year from 2024 to 2028 is expected to range between 1.1 and 1.9 degrees Celsius hotter than at the start of the industrial era.
It also estimated that there’s nearly a one-in-two chance—47%—that the average global temperatures over that timeframe could top 1.5 C, an increase from just under a one-in-three chance projected for the 2023-2027 span.
Guterres spoke from the American Museum of Natural History in New York in a bid to revive focus on climate change at a time when many national elections, and conflict in places like Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan this year have seized much of the international spotlight.
He repeated concerns about subsidies paid out in many countries for fossil fuels, which help keep prices low for consumers.
“Climate change is the mother of all stealth taxes paid by everyday people and vulnerable countries and communities,” he said. “Meanwhile, the godfathers of climate chaos — the fossil fuel industry — rake in record profits and feast off trillions in taxpayer-funded subsidies.”
Guterres said that global emissions of carbon dioxide must fall 9% each year to…
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