UN leader tells Cambridge panel the world should 'stop subsidising fossil fuels'
Watch a report from ITV News Anglia's Stuart Leithes
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has told students at Cambridge University that governments should stop subsidising fossil fuels and give the money to people instead.
After travelling to Cambridge from Glasgow he's been taking part in a discussion panel on climate action at Pembroke College, which also included the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.
During the panel, Mr Guterres said subsidies to fossils fuel producers "distort the market and penalise renewable energy".
"I think the logic that must prevail in the world is that we stop subsidising things and we start subsidising people," the 72-year-old said.
"Instead of spending an amount of money on subsidising fossil fuels or other products, you should have, for instance, a minimum income guaranteed for families. Or you should have reduction in your income tax for salaries, for instance."
Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who was also part of the panel discussion, said: "I doubt very much whether Cop is going to deliver a greater change of heart. But what it can deliver is both the fulfilment of financial promises made about resources for less developed countries and a tightening of the timetable on the delivery of such funds."
Panellist Maryam Grassly is a second year geography student but also a member of the local Extinction Rebellion youth group.
She sounded a note of caution about some of the solutions being suggested.
"Electric cars are great, but how about no cars, or less cars, and cycling instead"
"I guess it made me realise even more that organisations like the UN are still focusing on technocratic and funding, whereas I am much more about community empowerment and citizens assemblies and voices and I thought that was more integrated than it is"
Just yesterday Antonio Gutteres received an honourary doctorate of Law at Pembrooke College.
After he collected the degree, he spoke of the urgent need to tackle the climate crisis.
Mr Guterres said: "We are careening toward climate catastrophe, unless we act now to keep temperature rises to the 1.5-degree target of the Paris Agreement. Current pledges put us on course for an uninhabitable world, with temperatures at least two degrees higher than they were in pre-industrial times.
"Biodiversity is collapsing, with a million species at risk of extinction. We are polluting and poisoning air, water and land."
However he praised Cambridge University saying that it is "at the forefront of efforts to tackle these crises" through its climate change initiative Cambridge Zero and the Cambridge Conservation Initiative.