Fossil fuels, or hydrocarbons, are energy-dense and have played a major role in the development we see today. However, their extraction and use heavily contribute to environmental damage. In this conversation with SEBLE SAMUEL, Head of Africa Campaigns and Advocacy at the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, our assistant editor ALICK PONJE aim to gain a deeper understanding of efforts to phase out fossil fuels.
Shed more light on the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Fossil fuel extraction has driven human rights violations, ecological destruction, debt crises and violent conflicts across our continent. At the same time, fossil fuels remain the leading cause of the climate emergency, responsible for nearly 90 percent of carbon emissions released in the last decade, and wreaking havoc on our continent least responsible for the crisis. But despite their protagonism in fuelling climate catastrophe, coal, oil and gas remain absent from the Paris Agreement, the world’s leading climate agreement.
How do we address a crisis if we don’t name and go to the source? The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty is a proposed global mechanism to complement the Paris Agreement and fill this policy void by fostering international cooperation to accelerate a global just transition from fossil fuels that is equitable and financed to a people-centred and renewable-powered future, end the expansion of oil, gas and coal, and fairly phase out existing fossil fuel extraction in keeping with what science shows is needed to address the climate crisis.
The proposal for a Fossil Fuel Treaty is spearheaded by a growing bloc of 13 global south nations from the Pacific, Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and has been endorsed by thousands of organisations and institutions including the World Health Organisation and the European Parliament, more than 115 cities and subnational governments on every single continent, over 3,000 scientists and academics, 101 Nobel laureates, and over 800 parliamentarians from 85 countries.
We gather that Lilongwe and Mzuzu cities have endorsed the call for a Fossil Fuel Treaty. What does this entail including the recent briefing you had with the media?
Malawi’s capital city, Lilongwe, has demonstrated significant climate leadership by becoming the first African capital to endorse the call for a Fossil Fuel Treaty. Mzuzu, the country’s third largest city, has also endorsed the proposal, joining over 115 cities around the world, from Paris to Belém, Sydney to Kolkata, Lima to London and Amsterdam to Vancouver, who are all demanding a Fossil Fuel Treaty.
As one of the most climate vulnerable countries in the world, disproportionately affected by escalating climate impacts caused by the global extraction of fossil fuels, Malawi’s circumstances are a prime example of the climate injustice suffered by communities that have contributed the least to the climate crisis, and the need for a global mechanism to hold the world’s climate perpetrators responsible to end the leading cause of this injustice — fossil fuels.
Lilongwe and Mzuzu are joined by civil society and faith-based organisations who have also united their voices in the call for a Fossil Fuel Treaty. Most recently, in partnership with the Association of Environmental Journalists of Malawi, the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative held a media briefing for over 35 Malawian journalists on the Fossil Fuel Treaty.
Malawi has the opportunity to become the first African country to join the bloc of 13 global south nations spearheading the treaty proposal. This would allow Malawi to participate in negotiating and setting the terms of an equitable transition that allows for financing for the expansion of renewable energy, technology transfers, economic diversification and development alternatives needed to move the transition forward.
Additionally, as chair of the Least Development Countries (LDCs) Group, Malawi has the power to galvanise political will among the LDCs, the majority of which are African countries, to push for a Fossil Fuel Treaty that centres justice, equity and finance for those least responsible and most affected by the climate crisis.
There are those who argue that the global transition from fossil fuels is slow and that, therefore, developing countries such as Malawi, should be allowed to explore their fossil fuel potential to also ‘develop’. What is your take on that?
This is precisely the fallacy that is peddled by the fossil fuel industry. The reality is that decades of fossil fuel extraction in Africa have not only failed to power and enrich the continent but have also failed to break the vicious cycles of underdevelopment, debt, violence and injustice. The era of coal, oil and gas extraction has left 600 million Africans without electricity access and made Sub-Saharan Africa a global energy poverty hotspot, home to 75 percent of the world’s population living without electricity.
It is in fact the only region in the world where this fundamental human right has steadily declined since the turn of the millennium. Even major fossil fuel producers on the continent such as Nigeria and Angola face severe energy access deficit where between 40-50 percent of their populations remain in the dark and they remain dependent on refined fuel imports for the vast majority of their national energy needs.
With a projected global decline in fossil fuel demand, expanding fossil fuel production is economically dangerous for our continent, locking us into structural entrapments and locking us out of the financing needed for an equitable transition.
In Africa, more than 70 percent of projected oil and gas development is at risk of becoming stranded assets, creating government revenue shortages and deficits, national debt and job losses, in addition to the climate and socio-environmental upheaval fuelled by fossil fuel extraction. Fossil fuels therefore are not only failing to meet the needs of Africans, but also present immediate and future challenges for communities and the planet.
Malawi and other countries across the continent are endowed with an abundance of renewable energy potential —39 percent of the global share and 60 percent of the world’s best solar resources. It is time to harness the abundance of these renewable resources and reject the structural entrapments of fossil fuel dependency. What is required is a just global transition from fossil fuels to an equitable renewable powered future to power the economy, create good jobs for communities, protect ecosystems and boost energy access to propel improved development outcomes, economic growth, public health benefits and educational development.
At present, the continent’s unparalleled renewable energy potential remains untapped, largely locked out of clean energy installed capacity and renewable energy investments — Africa has only received two percent of global renewable energy investments in the last two decades despite sitting atop the world’s largest clean energy potential. International cooperation, through a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, can unlock the finance and technology essential for Malawi and other African nations to unleash their renewable energy potential, with cascading effects for the country’s development and resilience.
The Malawian Government has not yet announced that it is halting a proposed coal-fired power plant project planned for the Kam’mwamba site. Does that paint a negative picture of its commitments to fight climate change in the context of fossil fuel?
Malawi, like many African nations, is reeling from a climate crisis that it did not cause. The country has contributed negligible greenhouse gas emissions and has demonstrated climate leadership by enacting robust climate policies and setting ambitious national climate commitments on the expansion of renewable energy capacity to 30 percent of its energy mix by 2030 and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 51 percent by 2040.
The opportunity for a more prosperous future for the country therefore lies, not in the expansion of fossil fuels, but in leveraging its renewable energy potential for improved energy access and development outcomes, one that can be tapped through international cooperation. A Fossil Fuel Treaty would present the opportunity for developing countries to pursue this, by holding wealthy countries historically responsible for the climate crisis accountable to transition away from fossil fuels first and fastest, while providing finance and technological support for an equitable, financed global transition.
It is important, however, to note that the proposed Fossil Fuel Treaty does not advocate for an overnight shutdown of fossil fuel extraction, but rather an equitable phase out that is grounded in justice, science and equity, and no new fossil fuel expansion. Our allies at the Civil Society Equity Review have developed science and equity-based phase out dates for each fossil fuel (coal, oil and gas) depending on the financial capacity for the country to transition, their historical contribution to the climate crisis and the role of each fossil fuel in the country’s domestic energy supply, job creation and government revenue.
The Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative is grounded in global equity and justice and calls for those most responsible for the climate crisis — western nations such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Norway, Australia, Germany etc. — to phase out their fossil fuel extraction first and fastest and provide both financial and technical support for fossil fuel dependent developing nations to transition at a slower timeline.
Where do we connect the dots on attaining just energy transition as a country and the non-proliferation treaty? The issue is Malawi is already grappling with biomass energy pressure due to high population growth.
International cooperation, through a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, can unlock the finance and technology essential for Malawi and African nations, which are abundant in renewable energy potential, to unleash this potential, light up their communities, and funnel this energy into improved development outcomes, socioeconomic prosperity, public health improvements and educational development.
The proposed Treaty is the needed legal mechanism to support and finance a just transition to a prosperous renewable-powered Africa that supports access to a future based on sustainable development, justice, equity and peace.
