15 June 2023 – As the Climate Change Conference draws to a close in Bonn, and with just a few months to go before the SDGs and the Climate Ambition Summits, the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has just delivered another powerful and crystal-clear speech on the urgent need to tackle the root cause of the climate crisis: the production of fossil fuels, "a product incompatible with human survival".

Inspired by a discussion with civil society leaders campaigning for the end of the fossil fuel era, and just a few hours after climate justice movements launched a global call to fight fossil fuels on September 15 & 17, the UN Secretary General reaffirmed that "The problem is not simply fossil fuel emissions. It’s fossil fuels – period", thus barring the way to any weak measures and unproven technologies aimed at tackling only the tip of the iceberg, CO2 emissions, without putting an end to the very source of these emissions, fossil fuel production - is, in his words, the "polluted heart of the climate crisis". 

He calls on countries to "progressively phase them out, moving to leave oil, coal and gas in the ground where they belong – and massively boost renewable investment".

Alex Rafalowicz, Executive Director of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, said: “The UN Secretary-General's speech echoes the call from people from across the world today demanding an end to the era of fossil fuels. The time for rhetoric, empty promises, and greenwashing is over.  Governments must work together to put in place an action plan to move away from dependence on oil, gas and coal in the fairest and fastest way possible. We will be on the streets to ensure peoples' demands are carried into the negotiation halls in September. Climate impacts are escalating, fossil fuel corporations are digging in but people are stepping up to end fossil fuels; fair, fast and forever.”