‘Subsidising suicide’: UN chief urges governments to stop propping up polluting fossil fuels

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🗞️ Driving the news: UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged governments to end fossil fuel subsidies, warning that public money is still supporting activities that accelerate climate change and biodiversity loss

🔭 The context: Governments pledged in 2022 to reduce subsidies harmful to nature by $500bn a year by 2030, but progress has remained limited
• The UN estimates around $2.6tn in public subsidies each year negatively affect nature and the climate
• For every $1 invested in protecting or restoring nature, roughly $30 still flows into activities that degrade it
• Guterres made the comments ahead of the COP17 biodiversity summit in Yerevan, where nearly 200 countries will confront a persistent shortfall in financing for nature

🌍 Why it matters: The warning highlights the contradiction between governments’ climate and biodiversity commitments and continued financial support for fossil fuels, intensive agriculture and other environmentally damaging activities
• Current government pledges would protect only 27% of land and inland waters and 12% of oceans by 2030, falling short of the global 30x30 biodiversity target
• The debate is especially sensitive ahead of COP31, as hosts Türkiye and Australia continue expanding parts of their fossil-fuel industries

⏭️ What’s next: Biodiversity negotiators will face growing pressure to redirect environmentally harmful subsidies, increase finance for developing countries and accelerate implementation of the 23 targets agreed under the global biodiversity framework

📈 One stat: Governments provide an estimated $2.6tn a year in subsidies that harm nature and the climate, while countries have pledged to cut harmful subsidies by $500bn annually by 2030

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