A window of opportunity to phase out fossil fuels
Next week, the UN's top experts on climate science will release a landmark report on climate change. Already, we are clear on what it will portend: a warming world, an unsure future, and a more severe climate chaos than we are already experiencing across the globe. We're not yet on track to save ourselves from this dire destiny, which will require us to keep the world from warming more than 1.5 degrees Celsius – the threshold beyond which climate change will trigger the most devastating consequences.
That news will be no surprise for the people we represent: millions of Bangladeshis and US Americans already hit by floods, droughts, and other extreme weather events made worse by climate change.
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But there's a sliver of hope. The latest science says that it's still narrowly possible to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, but only if we agree to phase out fossil fuels starting right now.
It's the latest and direst warning that we need to drastically reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. The International Energy Agency has already said that new oil and gas development needs to stop immediately. The reason is glaringly obvious: burning of coal, oil and gas has been the source of 80 percent of carbon dioxide emissions since the industrial revolution. It drives up the Earth's temperature and creates a spiralling crisis of extreme weather, rising sea levels, disease, biodiversity loss, water stress and poverty.
The fossil fuel industry continues to put profits first, so we need leaders who will put the people first. That includes having leaders at international financial institutions like the World Bank, who will firmly commit to addressing climate change and to better supporting vulnerable nations – not double down on fossil fuel investments – as well as electing leaders in nations across the globe who will commit to working in concert to address this planetary crisis that knows no borders.
The fossil fuel industry continues to put profits first, so we need leaders who will put the people first. That includes having leaders at international financial institutions like the World Bank, who will firmly commit to addressing climate change and to better supporting vulnerable nations – not double down on fossil fuel investments – as well as electing leaders in nations across the globe who will commit to working in concert to address this planetary crisis that knows no borders.
We need strong climate leadership in every hall of power, including in the boardrooms of multilateral development banks. Since the Paris Agreement was signed, the World Bank has continued to invest billions in fossil fuel projects. It has fallen behind on its already meagre climate commitments, which are less ambitious than the baseline targets set by other development banks. International financial institutions have a responsibility to meet the moment by ending fossil fuel funding and stepping up on climate aid to vulnerable nations.
On the national level, we need heads of state to pick up the pace on talks to end fossil fuels and follow the example of those who are leading the way. Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and the European Parliament have endorsed the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. Colombia says it will ban new oil and gas exploration. Costa Rica and Denmark created the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance, a growing cluster of countries driving forward the managed phaseout of oil and gas production.
That list needs to grow. And we need leaders who will uphold the promise made at last year's COP27 to frontline nations by contributing meaningfully to an international Loss and Damage fund. The science is clear: developed nations like the United States are more responsible for emissions, and yet the nations most affected, like Bangladesh, are forced to foot the bill for the devastation wrought on their shores. We cannot continue to allow wealthy countries to externalise the damage of their pollution spree.
Fossil fuels are a global addiction, and it will take a global effort to shake them.
As we work simultaneously on domestic efforts – from Bangladesh's visionary Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan to the United States' Inflation Reduction Act – we must commit as a global community to phase out fossil fuels. International cooperation, commitments, and treaties work because they provide accountability and set deadlines. A global commitment to phase out fossil fuels would inject urgency and decisiveness into a debate where we have no more time left to lose. It's why we're two of hundreds of parliamentarians from across the world who have joined the Parliamentarians Call for a Fossil Fuel Free Future, urging stronger international collaboration to end fossil fuels.
This year, a political opportunity to make that possible is on the horizon. The first Global Stocktake – a convention held by the United Nations to measure the progress of countries and other shareholders in meeting the goals established in the Paris Agreement – is our chance to get a reality check, hit the political reset button and put the world on a path to avoiding the most devastating consequences of climate change.
It's time to end the cause of this carnage and seize the moment to phase out fossil fuels for good.
Saber Hossain Chowdhury is a member of parliament in Bangladesh.
Ed Markey is a senator in the United States.
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