UN secretary-general calls clean-energy shift "unstoppable," urges action ahead of COP30

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told attendees at a Time-hosted report launch that the global shift to renewable energy is now inevitable and urged immediate, coordinated action from governments, businesses and financiers ahead of COP30.

Guterres said the economics underpinning the shift are decisive: "$2,000,000,000,000 went into clean energy last year. That's $800,000,000,000 more than fossil fuels and up almost 70% in 10 years," and later added, "Fossil fuels are running out of roads and the sun is rising on a clean energy age." He used the event to release a multi-agency report backed by UN partners, the International Energy Agency, the IMF, IRENA, the OECD and the World Bank.

The report and Guterres' remarks framed the transition as an economic and security imperative, not solely an environmental one. Guterres said renewables now nearly match fossil fuels in global installed power capacity, that nearly all new power capacity added last year came from renewables, and that "the clean energy future is no longer a promise.…