Big Oil peddled the big lie, says UN chief Guterres at WEF 2023

The world is in a “sorry state” because of myriad “interlinked” challenges including climate change and Ukraine war that are “piling up like cars in a chain reaction crash,” the UN chief said at the World Economic Forum’s meeting on Wednesday.

“We learned last week that certain fossil fuel producers were fully aware in the 1970s that their core product was baking our planet,” he said in his speech. “Some in Big Oil peddled the big lie.” 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivered his message on the second day of the elite gathering of world leaders and corporate executives in Davos.

Guterres said the “gravest levels of geopolitical division and mistrust in generations” are undermining efforts to tackle global problems, which also include widening inequality, a cost-of-living crisis sparked by soaring inflation and an energy crunch, lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, supply-chain disruptions and more.

He singled out climate change as an “existential challenge,” and said a global commitment to limit the Earth’s temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius “is nearly going up in smoke.” 

Guterres referenced a recent study that found scientists at Exxon Mobil made remarkably accurate predictions about the effects of climate change as far back as the 1970s, even as the company publicly doubted that warming was real. On the second day, government officials, corporate titans, academics and activists were attending dozens of panel sessions on topics covering the metaverse, environmental greenwashing and artificial intelligence. 

Ukraine has taken centre stage as the anniversary of the war nears, with Zelenska pressing attendees to do more to help her country at a time when Russia’s invasion is leaving children dying and the world struggling with food insecurity.

Guterres was not optimistic that the conflict, being waged less than 1,000 kilometres from Davos, could end soon. 

Volodymyr Zelenskyy was scheduled to address the conclave by video link.

“There will be an end of this war. There is the end of everything. But I do not see the end of the war in the immediate future,” he said.

Deep historical differences between Russia and Ukraine make it more difficult to find a solution based on international law and that respects territorial integrity, he added.

“For the moment, I don't think that we have a chance to promote or to mediate a serious negotiation to achieve peace in the short term,” Guterres said.