To Save The Planet We Need A Treaty – And To Consider Rationing

The Guardian - Letters

Bill McKibben, Naomi Klein, Caroline Lucas, John Sauven, Craig Bennett, Ann Pettifor and Leo Murray add their voices to calls for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty.

A Chinese state-owned coal-fired power plant near a large floating solar farm project under construction in Huainan, Anhui province, China. Photograph: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images 

We, the undersigned, support the call for the UK and other OECD governments to negotiate a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty to complement the Paris agreement on climate change, as proposed in your article “We need a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty – and we need it now” (theguardian.com, 23 October).
The latest report from the IPCC shows we cannot afford to burn the vast majority of remaining reserves of fossil fuels if we are to keep warming below 1.5 or even 2 degrees.
A new line in the sand is needed.
We support an agreement with a moratorium on any further expansion of the fossil fuel industry in rich countries, together with a fund to support renewable energy development in poorer countries to reduce the need for fossil fuels, paid for by redirecting the staggering $10m per minute that governments currently spend on fossil fuel subsidies.
The best way to mark the 50th anniversary of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty would be to begin negotiation of its fossil fuel equivalent.

Bill McKibben Founder, 350.org
Naomi Klein Writer and activist
Caroline Lucas MP Green party
John Sauven Executive director, Greenpeace
Craig Bennett CEO, Friends of the Earth
Ann Pettifor Prime Economics
Leo Murray 10:10

Links

• We need a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty – and we need it now
• IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C
• Global energy demand grew by 2.1% in 2017, and carbon emissions rose for the first time since 2014
• World Energy Outlook