Russia's invasion of Ukraine has distracted world governments from efforts to combat climate change, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video message played at the COP27 climate conference in Egypt on Tuesday.
"There can be no effective climate policy without the peace," he said, highlighting the impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on global energy supplies, food prices and Ukraine's forests.
"This Russian war has brought about an energy crisis that has forced dozens of countries to resume coal-fired power generation in order to lower energy prices for their people ... to lower prices that are shockingly rising due to deliberate Russian actions."
"(It) brought an acute food crisis to the world, which hit worst those suffering the existing manifestations of climate change ... the Russian war destroyed 5 million acres of forests in Ukraine in less than six months," Zelensky said.
Ukraine this year is hosting an exhibition space for the first time at a U.N. climate conference. But unlike the other booths at the COP27 festooned in colorful logos, flags and greenery, Ukraine's stood out for its bleakness - covered in gravely grey and black to symbolize the war at home.
Zelensky, who wore a trademark green T-shirt and faced the video camera from behind a desk, criticised world leaders for paying lip service to climate change without delivering real change. He did not name individual states.
"There are still many for whom climate change is just rhetoric or marketing ... but not real action," he said.
"They are the ones who hamper the implementation of climate goals, they are the ones in their offices who make fun of those who fight to save life on the planet, although in public they seem to support the work for the sake of nature."
"They are the ones who start wars of aggression when the planet cannot afford a single gunshot because it needs global joint action."
