The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, on Monday appointed a billionaire politician from New York to be his special envoy for climate action. It amounted to a finger in the eye of another New York billionaire: the one who occupies the White House and who has dismissed the fact of climate change.
The appointment of Michael R. Bloomberg, a former mayor of New York City who is a prominent advocate in the fight against climate change, to the United Nations post comes a year ahead of a summit meeting on global warming that the secretary general is planning.
“The world has those that follow and those that lead. And those that lead, some lead in the wrong direction and some lead in the right direction,” Mr. Guterres said at a news conference Monday at United Nations headquarters. “You are of those that lead and have always led in the right direction,” he told Mr. Bloomberg, “and it is an enormous privilege for me to be able to work so closely with you.”
