LONDON, July 2. /TASS/. Climate action should be the top priority for the all the countries around the world despite emerging regional conflicts, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in an interview with the Guardian published on Saturday.
"It is so concerning that the war in Ukraine has to a large extent kept out the focus on climate action. We need to do everything we can to bring again the climate issue as the most important issue in our collective agenda. It’s more than the planet, it is the human species that is also at risk," Guterres said.
The UN Secretary General pointed out that growing inequalities between north and south were of particular concern to him. "Inequalities are still growing inside countries, but they are now growing in a morally unacceptable way between north and south and this is creating a divide which can be very dangerous from the point of view of peace and security," Guterres said.
"What is worrying is we are living in a perfect storm. Because all crises are contributing to the dramatic increase in inequality in the world and to a serious deterioration in living conditions of the most vulnerable populations," he added.
Commenting on some EU members’ plans to increase the use of coal in the wake of the sanctions against Russian energy resources, the UN Secretary General was hopeful that European states would keep their anti-pollution pledges in the long term.
"Coal is enemy number one of climate action," he stressed. "I hope these examples of countries where some coal will be burned will be for a very short period," he said.