Addressing the global commercial and political elite gathered Wednesday this week at the World Economic Forum summit in Davos, Switzerland, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres grills the world’s largest fossil fuel suppliers and their ”enablers” for ”still racing to expand production, knowing full well that their business model is inconsistent with human survival”.

”This insanity belongs in science fiction, yet we know the ecosystem meltdown is cold, hard scientific fact,” the Guardian cites the UN head commenting.

Information recently emerged about US supermajor ExxonMobil having conducted highly accurate in-house modeling of how fossil energy fuels climate change.

Drawing upon this context, Guterres likens Big Oil’s behavior to the tobacco industry’s efforts to spread disinformation on clear correlations shown between smoking and cancer – despite being fully aware of the underlying validity. Fossil fuel suppliers, he says, ”rode roughshod over their own science [...] and like the tobacco industry, those responsible must be held to account”.