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STORY: LONDON / GUTERRES CLIMATE AND ENERGY
TRT: 11:13
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 23 JUNE 2026, LONDON, GREAT BRITAIN
1. Wide shot, Secretary-General walking to the rostrum
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Crisis brings clarity. And here in London – the city of Dickens – it is clear that our world is facing a Tale of Two Crises. A climate crisis pushing us deeper toward higher temperatures and closer to catastrophic tipping points. And an energy crisis exposing the folly of a world hooked on hydrocarbons.”
3. Wide shot, Secretary-General speaking
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“On the surface, these crises may seem separate. But they share the same destructive origin: Fossil fuels. And they demand the same answer: A fast, fair transition to clean energy – and a surge in adaptation, resilience and climate justice for those already facing climate harm.”
5. Wide shot, Secretary-General speaking
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“We have just lived through the eleven hottest years ever recorded. And today this city – and far beyond – are experiencing the hottest day of the year – with higher temperatures to come. London isn’t just calling – it’s cooking.”
7. Wide shot, Secretary-General speaking
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Around the world, climate disasters are becoming more frequent, more destructive, and more costly. And the World Meteorological Organization has warned we ain’t seen nothing yet. El Niño is not just knocking on the door. It risks blowing the house down. Turning up the heat. Disrupting food and water systems. And hitting the vulnerable the hardest.”
9. Wide shot, Secretary-General speaking
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“The Earth’s tipping points are like objects in a car mirror: They are far closer than they appear.”
11. Wide shot, Secretary-General speaking
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“At the same time, we are confronting a second crisis. Conflict in the Middle East has unleashed the mother of all energy shocks. The International Energy Agency tells us its scale rivals the oil upheavals of the 1970s … and the turmoil followed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Combined.”
13. Wide shot, Secretary-General speaking
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“For many developing countries, this is not just an energy crisis. It is a debt shock. A food shock. A development shock. And I would add that any peace agreement is welcome and would bring much needed relief, but – make no mistake – the impacts are likely to be long-lasting.”
15. Wide shot, Secretary-General speaking
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“A model in which those who did the least to cause these crises pay the highest price. The lesson is clear: this model has no future.”
17. Wide shot, Secretary-General speaking
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“The good news is – unlike every past energy crisis – we now have a clear way out. A clean way out. Renewables are the cheapest, fastest and most scalable source of new electricity in most of the world.”
19. Wide shot, Secretary-General speaking
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Every unit of energy a country produces for itself is one less unit it must purchase from a market it cannot control...through a route it cannot protect…at a price set by events it did not choose. There are no embargoes on sunlight and no blockades on the wind.”
21. Wide shot, Secretary-General speaking
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“The verdict is in: Energy independence cannot be built on fossil fuel dependence. Renewables are the cornerstone of true energy security.”
23.Wide shot, Secretary-General speaking
24. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“CO₂ remains the principal driver of long-term warming. But it is also time to prioritize the cutting of methane. Methane is responsible for around one-third of global warming. It is some eighty times more powerful than carbon dioxide. But unlike CO₂, methane breaks down in the atmosphere within a decade or two. That means that aggressive cuts could produce visible temperature relief within a generation. That is why today, I am launching a global Call to Action on Methane.”
25. Wide shot, Secretary-General speaking
26. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“The world phased out leaded gasoline. We eliminated ozone-depleting chemicals. Methane pollution must be next. I call on producer and consumer governments alike to set a new global standard for the oil and gas sector: near-zero methane emissions across the value chain.”
27. Wide shot, Secretary-General speaking
28. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“The growth engine of today and tomorrow runs on clean energy. I understand the impulse, especially in periods of turbulence, to hold on to what feels familiar. The promise of “business as usual” can sound reassuring to some. But it means paying more for less security. It means surrendering the industries and the jobs of the 21st century to others – while risk deepens at home. That’s not leadership. It’s retreat.”
29. Wide shot, Secretary-General speaking
30. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“The eight largest fossil fuel companies reported pocketing an extra $6.5 billion in the first quarter of this year alone – and that only includes one month of the Middle East crisis, as oil prices continued to climb and profits to rise. These are windfall gains born of pain – of instability, hardship and dependence. I urge governments to tax them.”
31. Wide shot, Secretary-General speaking
32. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Artificial intelligence can accelerate climate solutions. It can help cure disease, transform education, and enable humanity to tackle challenges once thought beyond our reach. We must harness that potential. But AI is also hungry for land, water and power. The data centres behind it already consume more electricity than most nations. By 2030, they could use more power than all but five countries – and enough water to meet the basic needs of all 1.3 billion residents of sub-Saharan Africa for an entire year.”
33. Wide shot, Secretary-General speaking
34. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“So today I am proposing the AI Environmental Transparency Initiative. I am calling on every major AI company to measure and publicly disclose the full environmental impact of its systems – carbon, water, and land footprints – and to commit to power every data centre with renewable energy by 2030. No more hidden costs. No more shifting the burden onto those least able to bear it. It is time to come clean. If AI is to help build a better future, it must be honest about what it costs us now.”
35. Wide shot, Secretary-General speaking
36. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“And I want to emphasize that clean energy cannot be built on dirty practices. A just transition means the countries and communities whose lands hold the critical minerals of the clean energy future must fully share in its benefits. No more extraction without development.”
37. Wide shot, Secretary-General speaking
38. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“We must do far more to protect people and communities from the here-and-now effects of climate chaos. Because even at full speed, we cannot outrun climate change. Its impacts are already here – compounding and cascading. A drought can quickly become a food crisis. A storm can become a debt crisis. A heatwave can become a public health emergency. Adaptation is essential.”
39. Wide shot, Secretary-General speaking
40. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Today, the global financial system is failing the countries that need support most. It overprices risk – and underprices opportunity.”
41. Wide shot, Secretary-General speaking
42. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Look no further than the vast African continent. Africa is home to 60 per cent of the world’s best solar resources. Thirty per cent of critical minerals. And one-fifth of humanity. Yet it receives just two per cent of global clean energy investment. At the same time, more than 600 million Africans still lack access to electricity.”
43. Wide shot, Secretary-General speaking
44. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“We must protect science – and truth itself. Science has given humanity the ability to understand the risks before catastrophe strikes. Yet disinformation is spreading – deliberately – to delay climate action, entrench vested interests, and erode trust. We must act to protect scientific independence.”
45. Wide shot, Secretary-General speaking
46. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“The United Nations has launched the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change to help do just that. Facts matter. Science matters. Information integrity matters.”
47. Wide shot, Secretary-General speaking
48. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“For the climate agenda, this is indeed the best of times and the worst of times. The worst – because climate impacts are intensifying, tipping points are looming, and the energy crisis has exposed the deep risks of dependence on fossil fuels. But also the best – because the renewables revolution is well underway.”
49. Wide shot, Secretary-General speaking
50. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“This is our moment of choice. Our moment of truth. Our moment of opportunity. Let’s seize it.”
51. Wide shot, Secretary-General leaving the rostrum
In a major keynote speech at London Climate Action Week, the UN chief called on AI firms to "come clean" on the full environmental impact of data centres in terms their carbon, water and land footprints.
The Secretary-General also highlighted how the world’s dependence on oil is driving both the climate crisis and an energy sovereignty crunch, the latter linked to massive shipping disruption in the Strait of Hormuz and the war involving Iran, Israel and the United States.
“These crises may seem separate but they share the same destructive origin: fossil fuels. And they demand the same answer: a fast, fair transition to clean energy and a surge in adaptation, resilience and climate justice for those already facing climate harm,” Guterres said, in a call for political leadership to push through global change akin to that required to phase out leaded gasoline and to ban chemicals that created a hole in the ozone layer.
It is more than a decade since world leaders agreed in Paris to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, a remarkable show of international unity, led by the UN. Today, although that Agreement stands – and despite the US officially withdrawing for a second time in January this year – UN-backed scientists warn that average annual temperatures are likely to exceed that threshold in coming years.
“Every fraction of a degree matters,” the Secretary-General insisted, as he forewarned of the irreversible damage to coral reefs unable to survive in too-warm waters, the melting ice sheets that threaten to reshape coastlines and displace millions, and the real possibility that some small island nations could disappear under the waves.
Faced with this existential scenario, “the task before us is to strictly limit the overshoot, shorten its duration and bring temperatures down below 1.5°C as fast as possible,” Guterres maintained.
And while he pointed out that “any peace agreement is welcome and would bring much needed relief,” in reference to a 60-day pause in hostilities to allow ongoing Iranian-US talks in Switzerland, the UN chief noted that the Middle East crisis had unleashed “the mother of all energy shocks” comparable to the oil disruption of the 1970s and the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
As damaging as the Middle East war has been for highly industrialized nations, the UN Secretary-General insisted that developing countries have been hit even harder:
“It is a debt shock, a food shock, a development shock,” he told the London audience.
“The good news is – unlike every past energy crisis – we now have a clear way out, a clean way out,” the Secretary-General continued.
He noted that since 2010, the cost of solar energy has plummeted by almost 90 per cent, onshore wind by more than 70 per cent, and battery storage by 95 per cent.
Renewables avoided more than the annual carbon dioxide emissions of the US, the EU and Japan combined, Guterres said, adding that clean energy investment now attracts almost twice as much as fossil fuels.
“There are no embargoes on sunlight and no blockades on the wind,” he said.
As part of the Secretary-General’s blueprint for a clean break with fossil fuels, he outlined seven key steps:
1: Emissions must peak immediately and fall steeply this decade, reaching net zero by 2050. The G20 group of wealthy nations “must lead” on this, as it is responsible for around 80 per cent of global emissions, Guterres said. Ambitious measures include a global Call to Action on Methane to reduce emissions of the gas traps around 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide, but which breaks down in the atmosphere within just a decade or two.
“The world phased out leaded gasoline. We eliminated ozone-depleting chemicals. Methane pollution must be next,” the UN chief stressed.
2: Clean energy projects should be promoted and public subsidies ditched for new fossil fuel projects. “The eight largest fossil fuel companies reported pocketing an extra $6.5 billion in the first quarter of this year alone…I urge governments to tax them" to help vulnerable families and communities and accelerate the shift to clean, affordable energy, Guterres said.
3: Every major AI company should “measure and publicly disclose the full environmental impact” of data centres: their carbon, water and land footprints – and commit to power every data centre with renewable energy by 2030. Today, AI data centres already consume more electricity than most nations; “it’s time to come clean”, the UN chief noted.
By 2030, AI data centres could use enough water to meet the basic needs of all 1.3 billion residents of sub–Saharan Africa for an entire year, the UN chief said.
4: “No more extraction without development:” Guterres called for greater support for the move to clean energy in a way that benefits workers and communities everywhere and developing countries too, driven forward by the UN Climate Conference – COP31 – in Türkiye. “The transition itself is no longer in question,” he stressed, adding: “It will be either managed or chaotic, fair or unequal, a source of stability or of greater division; and these choices are still ours to make.”
5: Protect those most at risk from climate chaos by helping them adapt, because this “saves lives, safeguards homes and communities, helps economies absorb shocks and holds societies together”, the Secretary-General insisted. Contingency systems need to be put in place before shocks become humanitarian and economic catastrophes, Guterres added. At the same time, developed countries must deliver on their “long-standing commitment to double adaptation finance, with a clear trajectory toward tripling it”, he said.
6: Support fair finance to support phasing out fossil fuels and the green transition at scale and at speed: because many developing countries face borrowing costs that are two to three times higher than in wealthier economies.
“Countries rich in renewable potential are being locked out of the clean energy revolution,” the UN chief maintained, pointing to African countries which receive only two per cent of global clean energy investment even though they possess 60 per cent of the world’s best solar resources.
Guterres highlighted the $600-800 billion in additional lending capacity of multilateral development banks, such as the World Bank. This should be used “aggressively” to finance the infrastructure of the future and climate adaptation, along with other investment measures such as taxing high-emitting sectors, he maintained.
Equally, “developed countries must keep their promises", including support to the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage and the Green Climate Fund, the Secretary-General continued, noting that the $300 billion pledged to developing countries must be delivered along with concrete steps to mobilize $1.3 trillion a year by 2035.
7: Finally, the UN Secretary-General urged support for science as the bedrock of truth and early warning systems - and to tackle climate falsehoods, since "disinformation is spreading deliberately to delay climate action, entrench vested interests, and erode trust.”
Human rights defenders and journalists reporting on the climate and the environment should be protected and trust in evidence and institutions bolstered, Guterres insisted, pointing to the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change, led by the UN, UNESCO and Brazil in support of this goal.
