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Add to Preferred Sources”We need a green economy, not grey economy,” said Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General, in his message for World Environment Day. This year’s theme was Beat Air Pollution, as the World Health Organization published alarming statistics on the impact of air pollution on human health – it causes 7 million premature deaths annually.
The UN Secretary-General has also stressed that air pollution is one of the causes of climate change, shifting the discussion towards the need to transition towards a green economy, a topic he has been bringing up for the past couple of months, including in his visit to the South Pacific last month.
Mr. Guterres has been echoing “three urgent messages” to world leaders that he had consistently conveyed throughout his visit to the Pacific, beginning with shifting taxes from salaries to carbon. “Shift taxes from salaries to carbon. Tax pollution, not people. Stop subsidizing fossil fuels. Taxpayers’ money should not be used to boost hurricanes, rise water levels, spread drought and heat waves, melt glaciers and bleach corals. Stop building new coal plants by 2020,” was his statement during the Pacific visit.
To help generate ambition and to showcase practical, feasible and ambitious solutions to meet globally agreed goals, Mr. Guterres is convening a Climate Action Summit in New York on 23 September, where he is inviting leaders to come with ”concrete, realistic plans” to enhance their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by 2020.