Part of the problem now is that the current elites are starting to get scared. They were pretty confident the risks of catastrophic global warming had been overstated. Now they are suddenly starting to realize the true magnitude of the risks they have been taking.

This puts them in a very difficult spot.

In many of the Classic Maya cities there are hastily erected walls. Not around the city. Around the Elite residential area. Around the palaces.

In several of these cities we have found the bodies of unburied dead in these areas. Along with signs of burning and broken weapons.

This all takes place in the period right after 900AD. When the Climate changed and a 100 year period of intense drought started.

When the Elites failed them. When they could not bring the rains and control the weather. The people turned on them and massacred them.

Leaving the bodies of men, women, children, and infants on the ground where they fell. Then burning their palaces around their corpses.

It's going to be very difficult for the existing elites to "unwind" their current position. At this point they are incentivized to say nothing and pretend this is nothing more than "natural variation" in the Climate.

That's a big part of what this speech is about.

Guterres is telling them. That if they start shutting down the fossil fuel industry and using the profits from it to help pay for an Energy Transition in the developing world.

They can still get on the right side of history and defuse the growing RAGE against them.

This speech is him urging them to act in "Enlightened Self Interest" and laying out an outline of what that will mean. It's part of a negotiation with the Elites to get them to stop defending the status quo and allow the necessary actions to fight Climate Change to start happening.

He's making them an offer.

Because they are starting to get scared and scared people do stupid things.