In a special address to the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda 2022, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said that “no new coal plants should be built.”
“This must be a priority for us all—to phase-out coal,” he said.
Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal who also previously led the Socialist International, has served as secretary-general of the UN since 2017.
His remarks come just months after the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland. The final COP26 decision text asked parties to “[accelerate] efforts towards the phase-out of unabated coal power and inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, recognizing the need for support towards a just transition”—a significant change from a parallel passage in the text’s first draft, which “calls upon parties to accelerate the phasing-out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels,” without mentioning any “need for support.”…