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COP27, which kicked off this week in Eygpt, has seen Tuvalu become the first nation at the summit to demand an international fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty, which would see an agreement to phase out of the use of coal, gas and oil.
Tuvalu is a small pacific nation that can speak to the experience of being vulnerable now to the rising sea levels. They have followed Vanuatu, another pacific nation, in their demand to ask for an international phase of fossil fuels.
Kausea Natano, the prime minister of Tuvalu, said that “the warming seas are starting to swallow our lands, inch by inch. But the world’s addiction to oil, gas and coal can’t sink our dreams under the waves.
“We, therefore, unite with a hundred Nobel peace prize laureates and thousands of scientists worldwide and urge world leaders to join the fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty to manage a just transition away from fossil fuels.”
COP26 was the first time there was a commitment to phase down the use of coals; however, at the time, this didn’t extend to gas and oil.
The primary source of the climate crisis comes from burning fossil fuels as part of the COP27 discussion to centre around the compensation for developing countries who experience displacement and destruction due to climate change. However, it is unlikely that an explicit agreement to phase out fossil fuels will result from COP27.
Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International. “We know who the victims of the climate crisis are, and we know who the perpetrators are, but we don’t ever discuss fossil fuels, the elephant in the room.”
Countries like Tuvalu are effectively on the front line of climate change. The damage and effect of the climate crisis is not a concept; it is something which is having an impact. Activists will be pleased to see pacific nations using COP27 to call for a phase-down of fossil fuels and will look to other countries to speak out about the need to go beyond the phase-out of coal and look for an agreement to phase out fossil fuels entirely.
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