GLOBAL World needs to break its addiction to coal to fight climate change, U.N. chief says We must break the addiction to coal," U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said at U.N. Headquarters in New York on Monday, on the day that two lawmakers in Sweden nominated teen climate activist Greta Thunberg for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize. The U.N. chief has called for a reduction of coal before, but it was clearer than ever that the top world diplomat is sharpening his message and calling for action, several diplomats at the meeting told CBS News. Guterres spoke to a coalition of nations called the U.N. Group of Friends on Climate and Security, initiated by Germany along with the Pacific state of Nauru in Micronesia, which formed the group in 2018 to move the climate agenda forward. Monday's meeting was co-chaired by France and Morocco. France,
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the driver behind 2015 Paris climate agreement — from which the Trump administration began its withdrawal process — will also host a world conservation congress in June. At the event on Monday, France's U.N. Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere said: "In 2019, we witnessed the ravages of climate inaction: tropical cyclones, wildfires, cities asphyxiating under clouds of smoke and heat waves and we know that what 2019 is only the weakest version of what is yet to come if we do not choose to act now. Guterres said 70 nations have committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2050, including the European Union, but he noted that these countries represent less than one-fourth of global emissions.
US coal stocks continue sharp decline into 2020 After losing more than half of their value in 2019, U.S. coal companies in the SNL Coal Index continued the downward plunge in the first month
