Event Press Conference : Rise for Climate Belgium & Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

Press Conference : Rise for Climate Belgium & Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

Date/Time
Date(s) - 22/03/2023
09:00 - 10:00

Location
Press Club Brussels Europe

Categories


Following the publication of the IPCC’s Synthesis Report of the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) on Monday 20 March, Rise for Climate Belgium and the Fossil Fuel Non–Proliferation Treaty Initiative are organizing a press conference on Wednesday 22 March and a rally on Thursday 23 March (during the European Council summit in Brussels), calling on EU Member State governments to support the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Press conference

22 March, 9am to 10 am CET (welcome coffee from 8.45am)

  • Where: Press Club Brussels Europe, 95 rue Froissart 1040 Brussels or online here
  • Speakers:
    • Harjeet Singh (Strategic Advisor to the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative)
    • Julia Steinberger (IPCC author and Professor of Ecological Economics at the University of Lausanne)
    • Svitlana Romanko (Co-founder and Coordinator of Razom We Stand)
    • Olivier de Schutter (UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights)
    • Manon Aubry (French MEP, La France Insoumise)
    • Barbara Trachte (Brussels Secretary of State for Economic Transition and Scientific Research)

Rally

  • When: 23 March, 5.45pm to 7.15pm CET
  • Where: Rue de la Loi between Rond-point Robert Schuman and

Cinquantenaire Park, 1040 Brussels (access through avenue de la Joyeuse Entrée only during the EU Council summit)

Why it matters:

On 23-24 March, a European Council summit of Heads of State and government will take place in Brussels. Energy – including oil and gas production – will be a major topic at the meeting, held three days after the release of the latest IPCC report explicitly stating that only the most drastic cuts in carbon emissions from now would keep global temperature rise below 1.5 °C and prevent an even greater environmental disaster.

As Global North historical contributors to the climate crisis, European countries have a responsibility to transition first and fastest, while also supporting fossil fuel dependent economies with less capacity to transition. The war in Ukraine has further underscored the urgency to phase out fossil fuels. Apart from its devastating impact on the Ukrainian people, it has precipitated an unprecedented energy and cost of living crisis in Europe, while African countries are paying the price of Europe’s dash for gas to compensate for the lack of Russian gas.  

However, currently no international mechanism allows us to put an end to our dependence on fossil fuels. The Paris Agreement makes no mention of coal, oil or gas, and in recent years the UN climate talks have failed to even mention all fossil fuels, enabling governments to keep expanding production and fossil fuel industries to make record profits with no regard for their destructive impact.

The Fossil Fuel Treaty is the missing tool the world needs for a just transition away from oil, gas and coal production. This is why it has gained significant support including endorsements from 2000 civil society organisations, 3,000+ scientists and academics, 101 Nobel laureates, the World Health Organisation and hundreds of health professionals, more than 70 cities (including the Brussels Region), 600 Parliamentarians across the world as well as two nation-states: Vanuatu and Tuvalu.

The initiative is supported by the European Parliament which adopted a resolution calling for the development of a Treaty before COP27. Several EU Member States recognised the need to phase out all fossil fuels at COP 27, and seven European governments have withdrawn from the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), a fossil fuel protection treaty that runs counter to European climate policies.

It is time for European governments to replace the ECT with a climate protection treaty: the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.

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