After 30 United Nations climate meetings, known as Conferences of the Parties, or COP, the world has made very little progress toward reining in the deadly impacts of the climate crisis that include rising global temperatures, wildfires, floods, droughts and sea level rise. Years of inaction is due in large part to the fact that countries opposed to reducing fossil fuel use, like the U.S. and Canada, block agreements that must be unanimous. Another issue is that gas, oil and coal companies send more than a thousand lobbyists to climate conferences in order to influence the outcome.
Earlier this year, the first-ever conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels took place in Santa Marta, Colombia, co-hosted by then-Colombian President Gustavo Petro and the Netherlands. No fossil fuel lobbyists were allowed and only countries that made a commitment to drawing down their emissions were in attendance. One of the key issues discussed at the conference was the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative, a global campaign advocating for a new binding international legal agreement to halt the expansion of fossil fuels and phase out the use of coal, oil, and gas.
Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Tzeporah Berman, founder and chair of the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative. Here she discusses the importance of cutting the supply as well as the demand for fossil fuels, and action nations and individuals can take to support that goal.
For more information, visit Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative’s website at fossilfueltreaty.org.
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