EU's von der Leyen: "Let us not take the highway to hell"

[November 08, 2022]  SHARM EL-SHEIKH (Reuters) - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urged countries to hasten action on climate change, speaking at the COP27 climate summit in Sharm El Sheikh on Tuesday.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen looks on ahead of a family photo at the Western Balkans Summit at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, November 3, 2022. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner

"The global fossil fuel crisis must be a game changer. So let us not take the 'highway to hell' but let's earn the clean ticket to heaven," she said, echoing remarks by U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday.

In a separate statement, European Council President Charles Michel said that Russia had chosen to make energy "a weapon of mass destabilisation."

(Reporting by Sabine Siebold and William James, Writing by Nafisa Eltahir; Editing by Jon Boyle)

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