Saudi calls for fossil fuel spending

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said yesterday that the world needs more fossil fuel investments, a message at odds with the United Nations’ own panel of scientists and researchers.

‘‘We need to invest in fossil fuels in order to meet growing international needs and meet the needs of consumers and producers to avoid the negative consequences of unrealistic policies aimed an excluding the main source of energy,’’ Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said at the UN General Assembly.

The UN panel says there should not be new investments in fossil fuel infrastructure and that the fuels, which are mostly responsible for climate change, must phase out over time.

The kingdom has committed to carbon neutrality by 2060, but insists that the energy transitions must be gradual. Like other Arab states, he reiterated Saudi Arabia’s support for a two-state solution between Palestinians and Israelis. He also called for reform of the UN Security Council

to better ‘‘address common challenges’’.

Sri Lanka’s recent political crisis presents an opportunity, its foreign minister said yesterday.

Addressing the UN General Assembly, Ali Sabri alluded to the dramatic political upheaval that has roiled the South Asian island country in describing the ‘‘significant changes’’ Sri Lanka has undergone since the last UN General Assembly high-level meeting.

He said the ‘‘external and internal challenges we face provide an opportunity for implementing political, social and economic reform that will lead to recovery and prosperity for our people’’.

Sri Lanka’s new government is committed to fiscal discipline and economic and institutional reform, he said, and while the government acknowledges freedom of speech as a ‘‘sacrosanct’’ right, it must be expressed ‘‘within the constitutional order’’ and ‘‘within the confines of the law’’.

Echoing other developing countries, Egypt’s top diplomat yesterday implored countries to reform the United Nations, lamented double standards in how the world’s powerful nations deal with crises and expressed concern about growing national debt incurred during the pandemic.

Speaking at the annual Generally Assembly, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry also talked about Africa’s food crisis, saying one in every five people on the continent are at risk of hunger.

The pandemic along with the effects of climate change and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have impacted the cost and availability of grain.

Egypt is the world’s biggest importer of wheat and had to take out loans to purchase wheat to feed the country’s poor.

–AP