António Guterres, the U.N. Secretary-General, said Wednesday there’s a need for a “windfall” tax on fossil fuel companies—which he called “the godfathers of climate chaos—that would go toward the fight against climate warming.
Last month was the hottest May in history, according to the EU’s Copernicus service, with an average air temperature of 60.6 degrees Fahrenheit (15.9 degrees Celsius). This was the 12th consecutive monthly record high and thought to be 1.52 degrees Celsius higher than the average monthly temperature for May prior to industrial times.
Burning fossil fuels, such as gas, oil and coal, is the No. 1 contributor to human-caused global warming. The World Meteorological Organization predicts that the mean near-surface temperature across the globe will range between 1.1 and 1.9 degrees Celsius higher than before industrial times.
“Beyond the predictions and statistics is the stark reality that we risk trillions of dollars in economic losses, millions of lives upended and destruction of fragile and precious ecosystems and the biodiversity that exists there,” said Ko Barrett, the WMO’s deputy secretary-general, at news conference in Geneva. “What is clear is that the Paris agreement target of 1.5 degrees Celsius is hanging on a thread. It’s not yet dead, but it’s hanging by a thread.”
