UN chief tells Turkey climate summit: 'This is the path to mutually assured destruction'

“The brutal truth is that the climate crisis is outrunning us. This is the path to mutually assured destruction,” UN secretary general Antonio Guterres told world leaders at the Cop31 climate summit in Turkey on Wednesday. The UN chief siad that the slow international response to the climate crisis had put the world on this path and that rapid action was needed to avert it. His comments set the tone for two days of rapid-fire speeches by world leaders at the UN conference on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, Reuters reported. Guterres pointed to rising carbon emissions, global temperatures and worsening climate-driven disasters in his speech. “But science is not telling us to surrender. It is telling us to fight harder,” he said. “Fossil fuels must go the way of the dinosaurs.” Negotiators from nearly 200 countries are seeking agreement on a plan to increase the share of electricity in global energy use and revive stalled efforts to move away from fossil fuels. The summit opened on Monday and has, relative to its importance, received little attention against a backdrop of numerous wars, rampant inflation and other crises. Rapidly rising global temperatures feed into these other crises, driving conflict and competition for resources. Oil and gas companies have profited hugely from the war on Iran, which has driven up the price of fossil fuels.