‘I APOLOGIZE’

UN Chief Has Climate Change Conference Cracking Up by Reading Wrong Speech

Antonio Guterres said there was a “small confusion” leading to the gaffe.

The head of the United Nations inadvertently lightened the mood at the COP27 climate change conference by reading the wrong speech on stage. “You have been relentless in holding decision-makers to account,” Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in his remarks at the event in Egypt on Wednesday. He then paused and ruffled through his papers on the lectern as an awkward silence fell on the conference hall. “I think that I was given the wrong speech,” he said, prompting laughter from the delegates. “I’m going to speak to the group of young people afterwards,” Guterres explained, visibly amused by his own mishap. “There was a small confusion. I apologize.”