UN chief Guterres says subsidising fossil fuels is 'subsidising suicide'

A warning in Yerevan

On Friday, 16 October, UN Secretary-General António Guterres spoke at a preparatory meeting in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, ahead of the COP17 biodiversity summit that opens there on Monday, 19 October. He said that subsidising fossil fuels amounts to "subsidising suicide". Hydrocarbons, he added, are "making our planet boil" and are a scourge for biodiversity. He framed the problem as a question of spending priorities, saying governments are putting their money into the wrong causes. For every dollar invested in protecting nature, he said, 30 dollars are devoted to destroying it. The remarks came as states continue to struggle to cut subsidies that damage nature, a pledge they took on in 2022.

Targets running behind

The pledge sits within the Kunming-Montreal global framework, agreed at COP15 in Montreal, which nearly 200 states have adopted through 23 commitments. One of those commitments is to cut harmful subsidies by at least 500 billion dollars a year. Guterres said states are expected to reach their goals by 2030, yet they are lagging on almost all of their targets. The Yerevan summit is meant to take stock of progress made in recent years. It will also explore ways to speed up action, with progress on the subsidy commitment among the items under review.

Companies add pressure

In early October, 130 companies, among them BNP Paribas, Danone and Hermès, sent a letter to governments urging them to reform financial incentives. The letter says those incentives still send too much public money to activities that lead to the depletion of natural resources. The reported size of the incentives differs by language: Portuguese-language coverage gives 2.6 billion dollars a year, while French-language coverage gives 2.6 trillion dollars a year. The articles do not reconcile the two figures, so neither is charted. The letter was published before the Friday speech and before the summit opened.

Timeline ahead of the summit

The sequence in the articles runs from the 2022 subsidy commitment through the company letter and Guterres's speech to the opening of COP17.

The speech took place at a preparatory meeting rather than during the summit itself, so the articles report no outcome of the talks. Guterres's warning and the company letter both put subsidy reform at the centre of the Yerevan agenda. Delegates will review the progress states have made on the subsidy commitment when COP17 begins on Monday, 19 October.