On Friday, 16 October, Guterres said subsidising fossil fuels amounts to 'subsidising suicide' and that for every dollar spent protecting nature, 30 dollars go toward its destruction.
Guterres said states are expected to meet their targets by 2030 but are lagging on almost all of them, and the Kunming-Montreal framework includes a pledge to cut harmful subsidies by at least 500 billion dollars a year.
In early October, 130 companies including BNP Paribas, Danone and Hermès urged governments to reform incentives, which Portuguese-language coverage puts at 2.6 billion dollars a year and French-language coverage at 2.6 trillion.
The summit in Yerevan, Armenia, starts on Monday, 19 October, and will review progress on the subsidy commitment states made in 2022.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Speaking in Yerevan on Friday, 16 October, Guterres said hydrocarbons are making the planet boil, as states lag on cutting subsidies that harm nature before the COP17 summit.
AI text based on reports by Diário de Notícias, Notícias ao Minuto, RTBF and other publishers. Published .