Guterres anticipates "a winter of discontent" in the opening speech of the UN General Assembly

Advocates imposing taxes on windfall profits of energy companies

At the start of the General Assembly, the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, launched a call for the mobilization of the international community to tackle the cascade of current challenges from all fronts, in anticipation of "a winter of discontent on a world".

"We need to act in all areas," said Guterres, who fears the effects of rising costs of living and inequality, as well as climate change. "The population is suffering and the most vulnerable bear the brunt," he said from the lectern.

The head of the UN has lamented that, faced with "enormous and transcendental" challenges, the international community "is not prepared or is not willing". He considers that this is not the time for individualities, since "there is no power or group that can, on its own, dominate the situation."

In his opinion, conflicts and humanitarian emergencies are spreading "without paying attention to them", as evidenced by the fact that the UN appeal to attend to humanitarian emergencies drags a deficit of 32,000 million dollars, "the largest of history".

Guterres has reviewed in his speech some of the current crises, among which he has alluded to Ukraine. In this area, he has highlighted the importance of the grain export agreement signed between kyiv and Moscow, in which the UN acted as mediator. It was not a "miracle", but an example of diplomacy.

"The war (in Ukraine) has unleashed widespread destruction, with large-scale violations of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights," said Guterres, who sees "extremely disturbing" the information that points to the discovery of mass graves in the Ukrainian town of Izium after the departure of the Russian forces.

The collateral effects of the conflict also extend beyond Ukraine, since it has exacerbated the "global crisis of the cost of living", according to the former Portuguese prime minister.

In this sense, he recalled that some 94 countries in which 1,600 million people live are facing "a perfect storm" in which the rise in food and energy prices, the "crushing" burden of debt and lack of access to new funds.

TAXES ON ENERGY

In the energy field, it has established as a premise that "those who pollute must pay." "The time has come to intervene", which for Guterres means "demanding responsibilities" from fossil fuel companies and all those that revolve around their orbit, in particular financial institutions.

"Just as they did with the tobacco companies a few decades ago, pressure groups and information manipulation professionals have sown harmful disinformation," he said, referring to the "massive public relations machinery" that in some way protects the entire industry.

"The interests that move fossil fuels have to spend less time avoiding a public relations disaster and more time avoiding a planetary disaster," he added.

Although Guterres has admitted that non-renewable energies "cannot be eliminated overnight", he does believe that it is time to "put on notice" companies and their investors. For this reason, he has directly asked all developed economies to tax windfall profits.

The funds raised, he stated, should be redirected towards the countries that are paying the most for the damage caused by the global climate crisis and towards the people who are now experiencing "difficulties" due to the rise in prices of both energy and food.