02-09-2024
In the run-up to the UN Summit of the Future in September, 77 former world leaders and Nobel Prize winners have sent a hard-hitting letter to governments, stating that they are ‘gravely concerned that the draft Pact for the Future does not even mention fossil fuels, one of the greatest threats facing the world today.’
Initially aiming to ‘deliver a better present and safeguard the future’, the draft Pact for the Future has recently been the subject of negotiations, during which the all-important mention of fossil fuels was removed, significantly altering the impact of the final document. The first version of the Pact called for ‘accelerating the transition away from fossil fuels’, a position endorsed by the whole world at COP28 last November.
International Cooperation Is Key
As argued by the Nobel prize winners’ letter, a rapid and fair transition away from fossil fuels can only be achieved through international cooperation.
The letter stressed that ‘the extraction and burning of fossil fuels is the primary cause of the climate crisis, fueling extreme weather, fires, lethal heat, droughts and flooding that are threatening lives and livelihoods around the planet.’
It also highlighted how the extraction and burning of fossil fuels is seriously undermining all 17 Sustainable Development Goals, in particular by putting public health at risk, feeding conflicts, increasing social inequalities and threatening the world’s biodiverse ecosystems.
To prevent this from happening and putting an end to the use of fossil fuels, the signatories are calling nations across the world to:
- ‘work together to end the expansion of oil, gas and coal in line with the scientific and economic consensus laid out by the IPCC, the IEA and other internationally reliable scientific bodies’;
- ‘negotiate equitable phase-out timelines to complement and implement the Paris Agreement’;
- ‘scale the finance required to ensure that every country, community and worker can transition to a future of prosperity without fossil fuels.’
Furthermore, they call on the UN to ‘ensure that the Pact for the Future includes robust commitments to manage and finance a fast and fair global transition away from coal, oil and gas extraction in line with the 1.5ºC limit agreed to by nations in the Paris Agreement.’
The signatories ultimately warn that ‘if the Summit of the Future does not address the threat of fossil fuels, it will not be worthy of its name, risking undermining a once-in-a-century opportunity to restore trust in the power of international cooperation’. With just a few weeks to go before the start of the Summit, it is to be hoped that the Pact for the Future will break away from fossil fuels during the final negotiations.