Treaty against use of fossil fuels floated at COP27

Sharm el-Sheikh, November 8

The world should adopt a treaty that stops the use of fossil-fuel energy, much like it has tried to with nuclear weapons, Tuvalu Prime Minister Kausea Natano proposed as vulnerable nations continued to push for more action at COP27.

PM Natano said he would propose a non-proliferation treaty for coal, oil and natural gas later in a speech at the United Nations climate summit in Egypt.

A year ago at climate talks in Glasgow, a proposal to call for a “phase out” coal, the dirtiest of the fossil fuels, was changed at the last minute to “phase down” by a demand from India, earning the wrath of small island nations and some vulnerable countries.

Small island nation leaders also called for some kind of global tax on the profits of fossil fuel corporations that are making billions of dollars of profit a day during a global energy crisis triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“While they are profiting the planet is burning,” said Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, speaking on behalf of his and other small island nations.

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa called on similar nations to form a “countermanding bloc of the victims of climate change.”

In a departure from the criticism that rich countries have so far endured from many developing nations’ leaders at this year’s international climate meeting, the president of Malawi praised leaders present in Egypt for simply showing up.

“The temptation to abstain from COP this year was great,” President Lazarus Chakwera said, referring to the talks by their UN acronym, “because of the great and unprecedented economic hardships your citizens are suffering in your own nation,” he said. “But you resisted this temptation and chose the path of courage.” — AP