Ban fossil fuel ads to save climate, says UN chief

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Louise Thomas

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Fossil fuel advertisements should be banned around the world to help fight climate change, a United Nations’ chief warned.

UN secretary-general António Guterres slammed coal, oil and gas corporations as the “godfathers of climate chaos” and called for a clampdown on their advertising.

It comes as the EU’s climate change monitoring service said each of the past 12 months ranked as the warmest on record in year-on-year comparisons with the average temperature 1.63C above pre-industrial averages.

“The godfathers of climate chaos, the fossil fuel industry, rake in record profits and feast off trillions in taxpayer-funded subsidies,” Mr Guterres said.

“I urge every country to ban advertising from fossil fuel companies, and I urge news media and tech companies to stop taking fossil fuel advertising.”

The UN World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) also warned there was an 80 per cent chance that at least one of the next five years will mark the first calendar year with an average temperature that exceeds 1.5C above pre-industrial levels - the increase world leaders pledged to avoid in 2015.

Speaking about the findings, Mr Guterres added: “In 2015, the chance of such a breach was near zero. We need an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell. The battle for 1.5C will be won or lost in the 2020s.”

Carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels - the main cause of climate change - hit a record high last year despite global agreements designed to curb their release and a rapid expansion in renewable energy.

Coal, oil and gas still provide more than three quarters of the world’s energy, with global oil demand remaining strong in many countries.

WMO Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett said: “We must urgently do more to cut greenhouse gas emissions, or we will pay an increasingly heavy price in terms of trillions of dollars in economic costs, millions of lives affected by more extreme weather, and extensive damage to the environment and biodiversity.”

The EU’s earth observation programme, Copernicus, also said overall climate data was in line with projections of how rising greenhouse gas emissions would heat the planet.

“We have not seen anything like this in the last several thousand years,” said Copernicus Director Carlo Buontempo.