To tackle climate change, biodiversity loss and plastic pollution, the Stockholm+50 must tackle oil, gas and coal head-on.
A climate protest in London – which world will inherit it? (Sandor Szmutko/shutterstock.com)
Our planet is facing a triple climate, natural and environmental crisis that has a common cause – the fossil fuel economy. Oil, gas and coal are at the root of a runaway climate crisis, widespread biodiversity loss and pervasive plastic pollution. The conclusion is clear and must be of paramount importance as political leaders gather in Stockholm this week to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. Any efforts to address these existential threats to human and ecological health will mean little as long as the fossil fuel economy remains intact.
As United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres recently noted, fossil fuels are choking our planet. Their combustion accounted for 86 percent of global carbon emissions over the past decade, for which few actors bear overwhelming responsibility. In fact, nearly two-thirds of the CO2 emitted since the Industrial Revolution can be traced back to just 90 polluters, mostly the largest fossil fuel producers.
Just the beginning
But instead of curbing polluters, world governments currently plan to produce more than twice as much fossil fuel by 2030 as would be consistent with the 1.5°C target agreed in the 2015 Paris Agreement limit above the pre-industrial level. And when it comes to the damage from fossil fuels, higher global temperatures and worsening extreme weather events are just the beginning.
Last year, the UN Special Rapporteur on Toxins and Human Rights, Marcos Orellana, reiterated what people on the front lines have long known: Fossil fuel production creates toxic compounds and pollutes air, water and soil. Air pollution from burning fossil fuels was responsible for about one in five deaths worldwide in 2018. Additionally, oil and gas are the building blocks of toxic chemicals, pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers that are driving ecosystems and species to extinction. These fossil fuel-based products continue an economic and agro-industrial model that drives deforestation, destroys biodiversity and threatens human health.
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Fossil fuels are also behind the proliferation of plastics, accumulating in even the most remote areas of the planet, from the top of Mount Everest to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Ninety-nine percent of all plastics are made from chemicals derived from fossil fuels, primarily oil and gas. The production of petrochemical feedstocks for plastics and the use of fossil fuels throughout the plastics value chain are increasing demand for oil and gas and exposing millions of people to toxic pollution.
stir up conflicts
As if that weren’t enough, fossil fuels fuel and fund violent conflicts around the world. The fossil fuel economy is enabling Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine and the humanitarian crisis it created. In the seven years since Russia illegally annexed Crimea, eight of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies have enriched the Russian government by an estimated $95.4 billion. Russia’s energy export earnings have skyrocketed since February’s invasion of Ukraine, which pushed up prices. And major Western oil companies capitalizing on the conflict have reaped record profits.
Rather than take responsibility, the oil and gas industry and its allies are using the Ukraine crisis to push for more drilling, fracking and exports of liquefied natural gas around the world. But new fossil-fuel infrastructure that will take years to commission will do nothing to address the current energy crisis. Instead, it will only deepen the world’s dependence on fossil fuels, improve producers’ ability to devastate people and the planet, and push a climate-proof future even further into the distance.
As world leaders gather at Stockholm+50, overcoming our dependence on fossil fuels should be a priority. However, fossil fuels are conspicuously absent from the official concept note and agenda, and are barely mentioned in the background papers of the three “leadership dialogues” designed to inform the Summit’s outcome.
This omission is not accidental. The fossil fuel lobby has decades of experience casting doubt on the harm the industry is causing and obscuring the link between fossil fuels and the toxic chemicals used in industrial agriculture and plastic products. When outright denial hasn’t worked, the industry has touted false solutions, including speculative technological solutions, market mechanisms with gigantic loopholes, and misleading “net zero” promises. The goal is to divert political attention from urgently needed action to end fossil fuel dependency and expand on proven approaches such as renewable energy, agroecology, and plastic reduction and reuse.
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Transformational Action
Such transformative action is exactly what Stockholm+50 needs to deliver. Participating governments and policymakers must recognize that fossil fuels are the key driver of the triple crisis we face, and set a bold agenda to halt fossil fuel expansion, a swift and equitable decline in oil, gas and Coal will ensure and accelerate a just transition to a fossil-free future.
One possible feature of such an agenda would be a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty — an initiative that has garnered broad support, including thousands of civil society organizations, hundreds of scientists and parliamentarians, more than 100 Nobel Prize winners and dozens of local governments. To drive progress, tomorrow, the day before Stockholm+50 begins, a wide range of stakeholders – including representatives from indigenous communities, governments, international institutions and academia – will gather for a pre-summit on the global just transition away from fossil fuels.
Parallel to the Stockholm meeting, an intergovernmental negotiating committee convened by the UN Environment Program is meeting in Dakar to draft a legally binding global plastics treaty. Crucially, the treaty must take a comprehensive approach that covers the entire life cycle of plastics, starting with fossil fuel extraction.
If there is one thing we have learned in the 50 years since the first Stockholm conference, it is that a future tied to fossil fuels is no future at all. To address the converging crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and petrochemical and plastic pollution, Stockholm+50 has no choice but to engage directly with oil, gas and coal.
Republication Prohibited – Copyright Project Syndicate 2022, “Dismantling the Fossil Fuel Economy at Stockholm+50”
Nikki Reisch is Director of the Climate and Energy Program at the Center for International Environmental Law in Washington DC. She was previously Legal Director of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University School of Law.
Lili Fuhr is Associate Director of the Climate and Energy Program at the Center for International Environmental Law.
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