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SHARM EL SHEIKH - 8 November 2022

Today, Tuvalu has united with their Pacific neighbours Vanuatu in calling on other nation states to develop a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, a proposed international mechanism to effectively regulate fossil fuel production and pave a clear, fair pathway for a shift to renewables in order to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5ºC. 

During his formal address at the UN Climate Talks in Sharm El-Sheikh, Prime Minister Kausea Natano took the main plenary stage and stated: “We all know that the leading cause of the climate crisis is fossil fuels. Tuvalu has joined Vanuatu and other nations in calling for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to steer our development model to pursue renewables and a just transition away from fossil fuels.” 

Tuvalu’s support for the proposed Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty joins a wave of recent momentum behind the proposal which was endorsed by the European Parliament, the Vatican and the World Health Organisation in recent months. 

As Tuvalu faces the prospect of their islands disappearing, the Prime Minister’s speech comes with the backdrop of loss and damage being a central issue for the COP27 climate negotiations, one that experts expect to only escalate with every fraction of warming. Fossil fuels are the primary cause of this loss and damage, with coal, oil and gas fueling 86% of the CO2 emissions in the past decade. 

Tzeporah Berman, Chair of the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative said “Vanuatu and Tuvalu are the first countries to call for a new Treaty as a companion to the Paris Agreement to align oil, gas and coal production with a global carbon budget.  We will look back on this in history as the moment of reckoning with overproduction that is locking in further emissions and holding us back from bending the curve”

Harjeet Singh, Political Lead, Climate Action Network International, said: “Big ocean states have provided so much leadership to international policy-making. Big ocean states pushed for the 1.5C target, they’ve pushed for loss and damage, and now they’re pushing for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. This is the next necessary step in international climate policy for climate justice.”

However, the world is on track to produce more than double the fossil fuels than would be in line with limiting warming to less than 1.5ºC. In this context, significant momentum has built behind the call for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty as an international mechanism that could complement the Paris Agreement by managing a global just transition away from coal, oil and gas. 

Tuvalu’s announcement reflects the Pacific leadership that has been essential to international climate policy for decades, having championed the need for justice and equity within the UN Framework Convention, its Kyoto Protocol, and more recently helping secure 1.5ºC target within the Paris Agreement.

The proposed Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty would be an international framework that would complement the Paris Agreement by regulating fossil fuel production with the aim to (1) stop expansion of any new coal, oil and gas (2) wind down existing fossil fuel production in line with 1.5ºC and (3) support and sufficiently finance a global transition to renewable energy where no worker, community or country is left behind.

In addition to recent support from nation states, the call for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty has been endorsed by more than 70 cities and subnational governments around the globe, including London, Lima, Los Angeles, Kolkata, Paris and the Hawai’i State Legislature. The three pillars of the proposal have been called for by 101 Nobel laureates, over 500 parliamentarians, 3,000 scientists and academics as well as 1,800 civil society organisations.

Tuvalu’s call for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty during COP27 is a next step towards building formal diplomatic support for the proposal. Similar moments were pivotal in the legal pathway towards treaties to manage the threats of nuclear weapons, ozone-depleting chemicals and landmines.