The UN Secretary-General has warned that the world’s advanced economies, in response to the Moscow-Kiev tensions, are on a dangerous path to increasing production and investment in non-Russian oil and gas resources.

According to Reuters from Brussels, Antonio Guterres said in a video speech at the World Climate Conference in Austria on Tuesday (June 24): “Rich countries have taken dangerous measures in the field of fossil fuels in response to tensions between Russia and Ukraine and warned.” Given the impact of this type of fuel on climate change, new investments in coal, crude oil and natural gas resources are “delusional”.

He added that the energy crisis, exacerbated by tensions between Moscow and Kiev, has led to a dangerous doubling of production and investment in fossil fuels by the world’s major and advanced economies.

Since the Russia-Ukraine military conflict in February 2022, some countries have turned to buying more fossil fuels other than Russia or investing in new oil and gas fields under the pretext of boosting their energy resources.

Germany and the Netherlands, for example, announced new plans this month to develop a new North Sea gas field, and German Chancellor Olaf Schultz has said he plans to participate in Senegal’s gas projects.

With the aim of increasing the capacity of liquefied natural gas (Al-Anji), the state-owned Qatar Energy Company has started measures to develop the eastern part of the Northfield gas field, which is shared with the South Pars gas field in Iran. The African country is Mozambique.

“The new step in securing oil and gas exploration and production projects is delusional and exacerbates global problems of environmental pollution and climate change,” Guterres said.

Scientists say that to prevent the devastating effects of climate change, global carbon dioxide emissions must be halved by 2030 and reduced to zero by 2050.

The International Energy Agency has called for an end to new oil, gas and coal projects to meet global climate targets, and believes that investment in renewable energy should triple by 2030.

Guterres called on financiers to take steps to finance renewable energy.

“If oil and gas prices had risen sharply around the world,” he said, “if we had invested heavily in renewable energy in the past, we would not be exposed to fossil fuel market instability now.”