Our History
Communities and governments along the frontlines of the climate crisis have resisted fossil fuel extraction and expansion for decades. The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative adds to this history with a global call to action to accelerate the just and equitable transition away from coal, oil, and gas. Check out this timeline to learn how the momentum behind the call for a global treaty to end the era of fossil fuels evolved.
2015-16
Pacific leaders call for a global fossil fuel treaty
In response to the impacts of the climate crisis, an early proposal came from officials and civil society leaders in the Pacific for a moratorium and binding international mechanisms specifically dedicated to phasing out fossil fuels in the Pacific. In 2015, in the Suva Declaration On Climate Change, issued from the Pacific Islands Development Forum Third Annual Summit held in Suva, Fiji, decision-makers called for:
"a new global dialogue on the implementation of an international moratorium on the development and expansion of fossil fuel extracting industries, particularly the construction of new coal mines, as an urgent step towards decarbonising the global economy.”
In 2016, following a summit in the Solomon Islands, 14 Pacific Island nations discussed the world's first treaty that would ban new coal mining and embrace the 1.5C goal set at the Paris climate talks.
AUG 2017
Civil society globally calls for end to fossil fuel development
At the international level, civil society actors also mobilized actively for a global phase-out. This led to the Lofoten Declaration, written in 2017 at a gathering in the Lofoten Islands, Norway, with academics, analysts, and activists.
The declaration recognized the emergency to stop the expansion of the oil and gas industry in order to achieve the Paris climate goals. It also called for action to be taken first by countries having benefited the most from fossil fuel extraction, having thus a historical responsibility for the climate crisis, but being also the best positioned in terms of capacity to take concrete climate action for a global just transition away from fossil fuel production. The declaration stated:
"It is the urgent responsibility and moral obligation of wealthy fossil fuel producers to lead in putting an end to fossil fuel development and to manage the decline of existing production.”
NOV 2017
Least Developed Countries call for phase out of fossil fuels
Another important step was the call made by the least developed countries for a fossil fuel phase-out.
In 2017, the Least Developed Countries (LDC) group made a joint closing statement at COP23, chaired by Fiji and held in Bonn, in which they stressed the need for:
"an increase in ambition by all countries to put us on track to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius by strengthening our national contributions, managing a phase-out of fossil fuels, promoting renewable energy and implementing the most ambitious climate action."
2018-2019
Growing framing of fossil fuels as weapons of mass destruction
SEP 2019
Climate Breakthrough Award goes to launch Treaty Initiative
SEP 2020
Launch of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative
OCT 2020
Vancouver, BC first city to endorse the Fossil Fuel Treaty
JAN 2021
Barcelona, LA & other cities join Vancouver’s call for a Fossil Fuel Treaty