At the annual UN General Assembly, that traffic-snarling symposium of international hand-wringing and high dudgeon now underway in New York City, the peril of climate change is always a prominent topic.
But as Taylor Swift might say, it hits different after the summer of 2023.
UN chief pleads for countries to phase out fossil fuels
In particular, Guterres will be focused on some of the biggest gaps between promises made and promises kept, one of which is the transition away from fossil fuels, she added.
“Countries — including, in particular, major producers like Canada — will be asked how they plan to align their production of fossil fuels … with their promises under international climate treaties,” Abreu said.
“There is an open question as to how Canada will align the positions that it’s taking in those international fora with the action that it is taking here at home.”
One such action reared its head Monday when the federal government, which has been under pressure from Indigenous communities to rescind its support for the controversial Line 5 pipeline, did precisely the opposite.
Government lawyers filed a brief urging a U.S. appeals court to reverse a June 2026 deadline to shut down the cross-border oil and gas conduit if it can’t be rerouted around an Indigenous reserve in Wisconsin in time.