101 NOBEL LAUREATES URGE COOPERATION TO STOP FOSSIL FUEL EXPANSION

101 Nobel Laureates’ Statement to Climate Summit World Leaders: Keep Fossil Fuels in the Ground

As Nobel Laureates from peace, literature, medicine, physics, chemistry and economic sciences, and like so many people around the globe, we are seized by the great moral issue of our time: the climate crisis and commensurate destruction of nature.

Climate change is threatening hundreds of millions of lives, livelihoods across every continent and is putting thousands of species at risk. The burning of fossil fuels – coal, oil, and gas – is by far the major contributor to climate change.

We write today, on the eve of Earth Day 2021 and the Leaders’ Climate Summit, hosted by President Biden, to urge you to act now to avoid a climate catastrophe by stopping the expansion of oil, gas and coal.

We welcome President Biden and the US government’s acknowledgement in the Executive Order that “Together, we must listen to science and meet the moment.” Indeed, meeting the moment requires responses to the climate crisis that will define legacies. Qualifications for being on the right side of history are clear.

For far too long, governments have lagged, shockingly, behind what science demands and what a growing and powerful people-powered movement knows: urgent action is needed to end the expansions of fossil fuel production; phase out current production; and invest in renewable energy.

The burning of fossil fuels is responsible for almost 80% of carbon dioxide emissions since the industrial revolution. In addition to being the leading source of emissions, there are local pollution, environmental and health costs associated with extracting, refining, transporting and burning fossil fuels. These costs are often paid by Indigenous peoples and marginalized communities. Egregious industry practices have led to human rights violations and a fossil fuel system that has left billions of people across the globe without sufficient energy to lead lives of dignity.

For both people and the planet, continued support must be given to tackling climate change through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Paris Agreement. Failure to meet the Paris Agreement’s temperature limit of 1.5°C risks pushing the world towards catastrophic global warming.

Yet, the Paris Agreement has no mention of oil, gas or coal. Meanwhile, the fossil fuel industry continues to plan new projects. Banks continue to fund new projects. According to the most recent United Nations Environment Programme report, 120% more coal, oil, and gas will be produced by 2030 than is consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C. Efforts to meet the Paris Agreement and to reduce demand for fossil fuels will be undermined if supply continues to grow.

The solution is clear: fossil fuels must be kept in the ground.

Leaders, not industry, hold the power and have the moral responsibility to take bold actions to address this crisis. We call on world leaders to work together in a spirit of international cooperation to:

  • End new expansion of oil, gas and coal production in line with the best available science as outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and United Nations Environment Program;

  • Phase out existing production of oil, gas and coal in a manner that is fair and equitable, taking into account the responsibilities of countries for climate change and their respective dependency on fossil fuels, and capacity to transition;

  • Invest in a transformational plan to ensure 100% access to renewable energy globally, support dependent economies to diversify away from fossil fuels, and enable people and communities across the globe to flourish through a global just transition.

Fossil fuels are the greatest contributor to climate change. Allowing the continued expansion of this industry is unconscionable. The fossil fuel system is global and requires a global solution – a solution the Leaders’ Climate Summit must work towards. And the first step is to keep fossil fuels in the ground.

101 Nobel Laureates

14 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates

  • His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
    Nobel Peace Prize 1989

  • Jody Williams
    International Campaign to Ban Landmines
    Nobel Peace Prize 1997

  • Juan Manuel Santos
    Former President of Colombia
    Nobel Peace Prize 2016

  • Tawakkol Karman
    Co-Founder, Women Journalists Without Chains
    Nobel Peace Prize 2011

  • Mairead Corrigan-Maguire
    Founder, Northern Ireland Peace Movement
    Nobel Peace Prize 1976

  • Rigoberta Menchú Tum
    K'iche' Guatemalan human rights activist
    Nobel Peace Prize 1992

  • José Ramos-Horta
    Former President of East Timor
    Nobel Peace Prize 1996

  • Shirin Ebadi
    Iran's first female judge
    Nobel Peace Prize 2003

  • Leymah Roberta Gbowee
    Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace
    Nobel Peace Prize 2011

  • Kailash Satyarthi
    Bachpan Bachao Andolan
    Nobel Peace Prize 2014

  • Denis Mukwege
    Founder, Panzi Hospital, Bukavu
    Nobel Peace Prize 2018

  • Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
    Argentinian Human rights leader
    Nobel Peace Prize 1980

  • Muhammad Yunus
    Founder of Grameen Bank
    Nobel Peace Prize 2006

  • Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo
    East Timorese Roman Catholic Bishop
    Nobel Peace Prize 1996

27 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureates

  • Martin Chalfie
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008

  • Thomas R. Cech
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1989

  • Paul Berg
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1980

  • Johann Deisenhofer
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1988

  • Frances H. Arnold
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018

  • Roderick MacKinnon
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2003

  • William E. Moerner
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2014

  • Richard R. Schrock
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2005

  • Sir John E. Walker
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1997

  • Kurt Wüthrich
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2002

  • Aaron Ciechanover
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2004

  • Richard R. Ernst
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1991

  • Walter Gilbert
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1980

  • Joachim Frank
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017

  • Richard Henderson
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017

  • Dudley R. Herschbach
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1986

  • Avram Hershko
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2004

  • Roald Hoffmann
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1981

  • Brian K. Kobilka
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2012

  • Roger D. Kornberg
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2006

  • Yuan T. Lee
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1986

  • Robert J. Lefkowitz
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2012

  • Michael Levitt
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2013

  • Hartmut Michel
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1988

  • George P. Smith
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018

  • Sir James Fraser Stoddart
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016

  • Rudolph A. Marcus
    |Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1992

6 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences Laureates

  • Oliver Hart
    Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences 2016

  • Eric S. Maskin
    Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences 2007

  • Edmund S. Phelps
    Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences 2006

  • Robert F. Engle III
    Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences 2003

  • Paul R. Milgrom
    Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences 2020

  • Christopher A. Pissarides
    Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences 2010

2 Nobel Prize in Literature Laureates

  • Elfriede Jelinek
    Nobel Prize in Literature 2005

  • Wole Soyinka
    Nobel Prize in Literature 1986

30 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureates

  • Harvey J. Alter
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2020

  • Elizabeth H. Blackburn
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009

  • Mario R. Capecchi
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2007

  • Peter C. Doherty
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1996

  • Andrew Z. Fire
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2006

  • Carol W. Greider
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009

  • Jeffrey Connor Hall
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2017

  • Leland H. Hartwell
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2001

  • Tim Hunt
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2001

  • Louis J. Ignarro
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1998

  • Sir Richard J. Roberts
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1993

  • Gregg L. Semenza
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2019

  • Thomas C. Sudhof
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2013

  • Jack W. Szostak
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009

  • J. Robin Warren
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2005

  • Torsten N. Wiesel
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1981

  • William C. Campbell
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2015

  • Harald zur Hausen
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2008

  • William G. Kaelin Jr.
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2019

  • Eric R. Kandel
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2000

  • Edvard Moser
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2014

  • May-Britt Moser
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2014

  • John O'Keefe
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2014

  • Yoshinori Ohsumi
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2016

  • Charles M. Rice
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2020

  • Hamilton O. Smith
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1978

  • Susumu Tonegawa
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1987

  • Harold E. Varmus
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1989

  • Michael W. Young
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2017

  • H. Robert Horvitz
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2002

22 Nobel Prize in Physics Laureates

  • J. Michael Kosterlitz
    Nobel Prize in Physics 2016

  • Serge Haroche
    Nobel Prize in Physics 2012

  • Anthony J. Leggett
    Nobel Prize in Physics 2003

  • Shuji Nakamura
    Nobel Prize in Physics 2014

  • Takaaki Kajita
    Nobel Prize in Physics 2015

  • Hiroshi Amano
    Nobel Prize in Physics 2014

  • Barry Clark Barish
    Nobel Prize in Physics 2017

  • Jerome I. Friedman
    Nobel Prize in Physics 1990

  • Sheldon Glashow
    Nobel Prize in Physics 1979

  • Brian D. Josephson
    Nobel Prize in Physics 1973

  • H. David Politzer
    Nobel Prize in Physics 2004

  • Wolfgang Ketterle
    Nobel Prize in Physics 2001

  • Joseph H. Taylor Jr.
    Nobel Prize in Physics 1993

  • Michel Mayor
    Nobel Prize in Physics 2019

  • Arthur B. McDonald
    Nobel Prize in Physics 2015

  • John C. Mather
    Nobel Prize in Physics 2006

  • Horst L. Störmer
    Nobel Prize in Physics 1998

  • Rainer Weiss
    Nobel Prize in Physics 2017

  • Arno Penzias
    Nobel Prize in Physics 1978

  • Robert Woodrow Wilson
    Nobel Prize in Physics 1978

  • David J. Wineland
    Nobel Prize in Physics 2012

  • Carl E. Wieman
    Nobel Prize in Physics 2001

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Join these Nobel Laureates by Endorsing the Fossil Fuel Treaty to create an international mechanism to manage the just transition away from fossil fuels by endorsing the concept of a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty today.

FOR SCIENTISTS & ACADEMICS

A similar open letter has recently been launched by scientists, academics and researchers around the world. Over 300 individuals have already added their name. Read more and join them in calling for Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.

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