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STORY: UN / GUTERRES DARBARI SETH MEMORIAL LECTURE
TRT: 04:13
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 26 AUGUST 2020, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Tilt up, exterior UN Headquarters
26 AUGUST 2020, NEW YORK CITY
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Investments in renewable energy, clean transport and energy efficiency during the recovery from the pandemic could extend electricity access to 270 million people worldwide – fully a third of the people that currently lack it. These same investments could help create 9 million jobs annually over the next three years. Investments in renewable energy generate three times more jobs than investments in polluting fossil fuels.”
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Clean energy and closing the energy access gap are good business. They are the ticket to growth and prosperity. Yet, here in India, subsidies for fossil fuels are still some seven times more than subsidies for clean energy. Continued support for fossil fuels in so many places around the world is deeply troubling. I have asked the G20 countries to invest in a clean, green transition as they recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. This means ending fossil fuel subsidies, placing a price on carbon pollution and committing to no new coal power plants after 2020.”
4. Med shot, lateral view of Guterres talking to camera
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Recent research on G20 recovery packages shows that twice as much recovery money has been spent on fossil fuels as clean energy. In some cases, we are seeing countries doubling down on domestic coal and opening up coal auctions. This strategy will only lead to further economic contraction and damaging health consequences. We have never had more evidence that pollution from fossil fuels, including coal emissions, severely damages human health and leads to much higher healthcare system costs.”
6. Med shot, lateral view of Guterres talking to camera
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Outdoor air pollution, largely driven by high-emitting energy and transport sources, leads to damaging pulmonary diseases – asthma, pneumonia and lung cancer. This year, researchers in the United States concluded that people living in regions with high levels of air pollution are more likely to die from COVID-19. If fossil fuel emissions were eliminated, overall life expectancy could rise by more than 20 months, avoiding 5.5 million deaths per year worldwide. Investing in fossil fuels means more deaths and illness and rising healthcare costs. It is, simply put, a human disaster and bad economics.”
8. Med shot, lateral view of Guterres talking to camera
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“The world’s largest investors are increasingly abandoning coal. They see the writing on the wall. It spells stranded assets and makes no commercial sense. The coal business is going up in smoke. “
10. Med shot, lateral view of Guterres talking to camera
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Our challenge is urgent and clear. To limit temperature increase to 1.5 degrees, global emissions need to be halved by 2030 and the world will need to be carbon neutral before 2050. These goals are still achievable. But, today, the world is at a crucial juncture. As governments mobilize trillions of dollars to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, their decisions will have climate consequences for decades. These choices can either propel climate action forward, or set us back years, which science says we cannot afford.”
12. Med shot, lateral view of Guterres talking to camera
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Renewable energy needs to grow. And coal use must be progressively phased out. That must be our story. A story of smarter, stronger, cleaner economies for the 21st century, creating more jobs, more justice and more prosperity.”
14. Med shot, lateral view of Guterres talking to camera
15 SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Both the pandemic and the climate crisis have raised fundamental questions about how to ensure the health and well-being of the world’s people and about how nations must cooperate to advance the common good. Young people, in particular, are looking to all of us to uphold intergenerational solidarity and take bold steps towards sustainability, equality and social justice.”
10. Med shot, lateral view of Guterres talking to camera
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres today (28 Aug) called on G20 countries to invest in a clean, sustainable transition as they recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Delivering the 19th Darbari Seth Memorial lecture via video message, the Secretary-General said, “investments in renewable energy, clean transport and energy efficiency during the recovery from the pandemic could extend electricity access to 270 million people worldwide – fully a third of the people that currently lack it. These same investments could help create 9 million jobs annually over the next three years. Investments in renewable energy generate three times more jobs than investments in polluting fossil fuels.”
In his remarks, entitled “The Rise of Renewables: Shining a Light on a Sustainable Future,” he said, “continued support for fossil fuels in so many places around the world is deeply troubling. I have asked the G20 countries to invest in a clean, green transition as they recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. This means ending fossil fuel subsidies, placing a price on carbon pollution and committing to no new coal power plants after 2020.”
Guterres noted that as governments mobilize trillions of dollars to recover from COVID-19, their decisions will have climate consequences for decades.
He said, “recent research on G20 recovery packages shows that twice as much recovery money has been spent on fossil fuels as clean energy. In some cases, we are seeing countries doubling down on domestic coal and opening up coal auctions. This strategy will only lead to further economic contraction and damaging health consequences. We have never had more evidence that pollution from fossil fuels, including coal emissions, severely damages human health and leads to much higher healthcare system costs.”
The Secretary-General stressed that “outdoor air pollution, largely driven by high-emitting energy and transport sources, leads to damaging pulmonary diseases – asthma, pneumonia and lung cancer.”
He said, “investing in fossil fuels means more deaths and illness and rising healthcare costs. It is, simply put, a human disaster and bad economics.”
Guterres said, “the world’s largest investors are increasingly abandoning coal. They see the writing on the wall. It spells stranded assets and makes no commercial sense.” The coal business, he added, “is going up in smoke. “
The Secretary-General said, “our challenge is urgent and clear. To limit temperature increase to 1.5 degrees, global emissions need to be halved by 2030 and the world will need to be carbon neutral before 2050. These goals are still achievable. But, today, the world is at a crucial juncture. As governments mobilize trillions of dollars to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, their decisions will have climate consequences for decades. These choices can either propel climate action forward, or set us back years, which science says we cannot afford.”
Renewable energy, he pointed out “needs to grow,” and coal use “must be progressively phased out.”
Guterres said, “both the pandemic and the climate crisis have raised fundamental questions about how to ensure the health and well-being of the world’s people and about how nations must cooperate to advance the common good. Young people, in particular, are looking to all of us to uphold intergenerational solidarity and take bold steps towards sustainability, equality and social justice.”
The lecture was organized by TERI, the Energy and Resources Institute, an Indian-based global think tank focusing on a broad range of sustainable development and climate-related issues.
