UN Human Rights Council debates the need to end the use of fossil fuels

Geneva, June 30 (EFE) - The UN Human Rights Council has opened a debate on the need to end the use of fossil fuels, which are considered the main factor in global warming and causing increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather events.

"We need a shift that will end the production and use of fuels and other environmentally destructive activities in all sectors, including energy, agriculture, finance, and construction," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk emphasized at the opening of the debate.

The High Commissioner emphasized that this energy transition "will be one of the largest the world has ever seen," and acknowledged the difficulties of implementing it in an economy where around six million jobs in the fossil fuel sector could be lost.

However, "current consumption and production patterns are unsustainable, and renewable energy must be the source of the future, having increased its generating capacity fivefold between 2011 and 2023," the Austrian stated.

Türk also warned about efforts by large fossil fuel companies to hinder this transition by "perpetuating misinformation and presenting false solutions that attempt to distract from the ongoing damage."

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Human Rights in the Face of Climate Change, Elisa Morgera, also participated in the Council debate. She agreed on the need to urgently end the use of energy sources that are the main cause of global warming.

"We still have time to achieve a safer climate, despite having experienced—consecutively—the ten warmest years on record and having crossed the 1.5-degree temperature rise threshold in 2024," the expert said.

Morgera acknowledged that the transition is complicated in the current geopolitical context, although he emphasized that despite this, "it must be implemented immediately and at all levels." EFE abc/icn