“The most polluting countries and companies don’t just turn a blind eye [face à la crise climatique] : They are pouring fuel on the fire.” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres gave up diplomatic language after the release of an alarming new IPCC report in April 2022. “They are suffocating our planet in the service of their particular interests,” accused the 73-year-old former Portuguese Prime Minister -El-Sheikh, Egypt.
“It’s a subject on which he has few boundaries because he feels it’s his job to say things that annoy,” says one of his advisors in New York. He often laughs and says that he must be a terrorist in these matters.” His speeches, sometimes worthy of the accusation of Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, are now suspected.
“Climate activists are sometimes portrayed as dangerous radicals, when the really dangerous radicals are countries that are increasing fossil fuel production.”
Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General
in a video posted on April 4, 2022
In the sphere of climate protection, this change of tone hit the mark. “There is so much unconsciousness about the gravity of the situation that someone has to tell the truth,” says Laurence Tubiana, director of the European Climate Foundation and former chief negotiator at COP21. “He does it with the authority he represents.” Same enthusiasm among climate activists. “We see it as an ally,” sums up Aurore Mathieu, head of international policy at the Climate Action Network. But his speeches and political line have not always been consistent with his current position on the fight against global warming.
To better observe Antonio Guterres’ moult, we have to go back to the 1990s, to a Portugal then nicknamed “The Little Dragon of Europe”. On October 28, 1995, Antonio Guterres was appointed Prime Minister at the age of 46. His strategy was to center the socialist party PSD, which he has led since 1992. “He left aside all references to Marxism, all speeches marked by the Carnation Revolution,” which ended 50 years of dictatorship, explains Yves Leonard, a historian specializing in Portugal. The main goal of the country is then to enter the euro zone.
Antonio Guterres, leader of the Portuguese Socialist Party, during the campaign for the October 1995 general elections in Lisbon (Portugal). (JOAO TRINDADE / LUSA / AFP)
“The fact that France put its weight behind Portugal’s entry into the euro brought us closer,” recalled Lionel Jospin. The then French Prime Minister described him at European summits as “a man of dialogue”. A leader “friendly, seeking compromise, a mediator”. The two men meet at bilateral meetings, but also at the Socialist International. “His vision was to strive for economic efficiency, but with important social and redistributive goals,” recalls Lionel Jospin.
Socialist and practicing Catholic Antonio Guterres claims to have campaigned in public life to fight inequality. “When I was in the Catholic University Youth Center and the Social Welfare Center, I was confronted with such social ills that I felt like getting into politics,” he says in a biography dedicated to him, Honest Broker (not translated into French) . His faith “permeates much of his public attitude,” explains historian Yves Léonard.
Above all, Antonio Guterres remains the man “who made it possible for Portugal to join the euro,” Yves Léonard continues. He is very proud of it. The Portuguese Prime Minister has therefore concentrated all his efforts on modernizing his country’s infrastructure. A logic “that is not always consistent with a respectful environmental policy,” the historian recalls. Many roads and highways are being built and construction sites are spreading along the Iberian coast, in “the logic of the car”, the historian notes.
“I am part of a generation that has waged war on nature,” Antonio Guterres recognized in a June 2022 interview with Euronews. Was he thinking of those years at the head of his homeland? “In part, I think he knows it became an existential cause for him later in his career,” said one of his advisers at the UN. “The awareness was not as intense as it is today, observes Lionel Jospin. In this sense, we can speak of an awareness that was too late.”
On his journey to climate awareness, Antonio Guterres is first made aware of the plight of refugees and displaced persons. In 2005, the then Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, elected him United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. There are still 10 years left. Two mandates in which he has to deal with one of the worst migration crises in the world linked to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.
During that decade, the number of displaced people rose from 38 million to 60 million in 2015, according to the UN. Antonio Guterres also has an opportunity “to see the population movements and uprooting that climate change could lead to,” explains a former consultant. In 2013, for example, climate-related disasters caused the displacement of 21.9 million people worldwide, three times more than conflict.
Upon his arrival at the UN General Secretariat in January 2017, he placed the fight against global warming at the top of his priorities. “He very quickly saw the climate as the matrix of tomorrow’s multilateralism,” analyzes a former adviser. However, the arrival of Donald Trump as President of the United States in January 2018 complicates the task. The latter promises an exit from the Paris Agreement, in which all states have agreed in principle to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
Many observers underline Antonio Guterres’ personal commitment to bringing COP24 to a successful conclusion in December 2018 in Katowice (Poland), “while the momentum of the Paris Agreement could have been lost,” emphasizes the adviser who is accompanying him. “He really put his weight on the table, which is rare,” confirms Laurence Tubiana, former COP21 chief negotiator.
In September 2019, he organizes a major summit that forces states to make new announcements. Those who arrive empty-handed are turned away. “It was daring not to invite everyone,” says a source in France close to the climate negotiations. “Once he has a trip, he tries to give it a climatic dimension,” says one of his advisors.
“Very often he tells us that he thinks a lot about the world he is leaving to his little girls. It is one of the great injustices that outrages him.”
Advisor to Antonio Guterres
at franceinfo
The climate crisis is hitting even harder now. “I’ve never seen climate carnage on this scale, I have no words to describe what I saw today.”says Antonio Guterres from Islamabad, Pakistan in September. Deadly floods killed nearly 1,500 people there. In the midst of this chaos, he tries to warn: “Pakistan is paying the price for something created by others.”
According to one of his advisors, Antonio Guterres returned from this passage in Pakistan “extremely scarred”. To see whole groups of people suddenly losing everything, not only their homes but also their sources of income, touches him deeply.” For them, Antonio Guterres has developed a sincere personal belief on the climate issue.
But are his explanations, as radical as they may seem, sufficient? “Nobody listens to him anymore,” said Franz Baumann, a former German UN official. “He’s not telling producers like Saudi Arabia to stop pumping oil,” he continues. He remains very general, so I call him a ‘preacher’.”
Other observers deplore the loss of influence of the UN, which according to Romuald Sciora, associate researcher at Iris, “has become almost more of a humanitarian organization than a political one.” “Antonio Guterres embodies the political downfall of the United Nations,” asserts this UN specialist, “that’s why he’s trying to weave this image of an actor very committed to the fight against global warming.”
“He’s not a radical, he’s a social democrat, nuances a former adviser to the UN Secretary-General. But he sees clearly that states’ commitments are still not there, so he faces up to their responsibilities.” In June 2022, during an interview with Euronews, Antonio Guterres was still staunchly supporting the many UN reports underscoring the scale of work yet to be done on oil, coal and gas. Keeping investing in fossil fuels is ‘suicidal’,” the UN Secretary-General let loose, determined to continue his fight for the climate.