Brandi Mueller | Moment | Getty Images SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — The South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu on Tuesday urged countries at the COP27 climate summit to conclude a global treaty to phase out the use of fossil fuels. The low-lying country, which faces an existential threat from rising sea levels, is the first to make such a call at the UN’s flagship climate conference. “Warming seas are beginning to swallow our lands – inch by inch. But the world’s addiction to oil, gas and coal cannot sink our dreams beneath the waves,” Tuvalu Prime Minister Kauzea Nathano said. in a statement. “Therefore, we join a hundred Nobel Peace Laureates and thousands of scientists around the world in urging world leaders to join the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to manage a just transition away from fossil fuels.” Tuvalu is following in the footsteps of its Pacific Ocean neighbors in calling for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty. Vanuatu called for the creation of such a mechanism at the UN General Assembly in September. However, only a few small countries have adopted the initiative to date, and the fossil fuel industry has typically tried to emphasize the importance of energy security in the transition to renewable energy. The statement on Tuesday comes at a time of growing momentum for calls to end fossil fuel production worldwide. The European Parliament, the Vatican and the World Health Organization have backed the proposal in recent months. Oil and gas giants, meanwhile, have reported record profits at a time of high energy costs and a cost-of-living crisis. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called on all governments to tax fossil fuel companies’ “windfall profits” and redirect the money to people struggling with rising food and energy costs and to countries suffering loss and damage from the climate crisis. “Vanuatu and Tuvalu are the first countries to call for a new Treaty to accompany the Paris Agreement to align oil, gas and coal production with a global carbon budget,” said Jeporah Berman, president of the Treaty Initiative on fossil fuels. “We’ll look back on this in history as the moment of blockbuster calculation that locks in further emissions and prevents us from bending the curve,” Berman said.
What does the treaty require?
The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty seeks to create a common framework to stop the expansion of any new coal, oil and natural gas. Of course, burning fossil fuels is the main driver of the climate emergency, and a flurry of UN reports ahead of climate talks in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh resort have warned that urgent and collective action is needed to avert disaster. The treaty also aims to limit existing production, in line with the quest to prevent global warming from exceeding the critical 1.5 degree Celsius threshold and support a shift to renewable energy where no community or country is left behind. “The major ocean states have provided so much leadership in international policy-making,” said Harjeet Singh, head of global policy strategy at the Climate Action Network, which includes more than 1,500 civil society groups. “The major ocean nations pushed for the 1.5 C target, pushed for loss and damage, and are now pushing for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. This is the next necessary step in international climate policy for climate justice .” Singh said. Last year, Tuvalu’s Foreign Minister Simon Kofe tried to underline how vulnerable the country is to global warming by delivering his speech at the COP26 conference while standing knee-deep in the ocean.
