GLOBAL POLICY
The Paris climate goals demand a rapid, just transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. We’re pushing governments to lead the way by adopting policies to end oil and gas production.
OVERVIEW OF WORK
In order to achieve climate goals, governments and other decision makers must support a just and equitable move away from fossil fuels. We are pushing for precedent-setting leadership from governments to put policies in place to manage the decline of oil and gas and ensure a just transition for fossil-fuel dependent workers and communities.
Building from a growing group of first mover governments, we are pressuring for increasing numbers of national and regional governments to end new licenses and permits for oil and gas production, and to develop plans to wind down their existing production over time.
LATEST PROGRAM POSTS
A €10bn (£7bn) project, called Iter, to build a prototype nuclear fusion reactor will be signed off in Brussels by the EU, Japan, China, South Korea, India and the US today. Its proponents argue that prospect of virtually limitless energy is no longer science fiction. Advocates argue that nuclear fusion is the most promising long-term solution to the energy crisis, offering the possibility of abundant power from cheap fuel with no greenhouse gases and low levels of radioactive waste.
One of Britain's best known and respected conservationists has finally broken his silence over climate change. Sir David Attenborough, the face and voice of the BBC's programmes on wildlife for the last fifty years, has told today's Independent newspaper:
"I was sceptical about climate change. I was cautious about crying wolf. I am always cautious about crying wolf ... I'm no longer sceptical. Now I do not have any doubt at all. I think climate change is the major challenge facing the world. I have waited until the proof was conclusive that it was humanity changing the climate".
Talking of Africa. A new aid-agency partnership has pledged US$60 million over five years to fund research into how Africa can best deal with the effects of climate change. The scheme called the Climate Change Adaptation in Africa Programme, is a joint project of Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the UK Department for International Development.
As Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth, premiers at the Cannes film festival, the Exxon-funded climate sceptics are crawling out to attack him. One of those is Myron Ebell, the arch-fossil fuel advocate from the Exxon-funded Competitive Enterprise Institute, the organisation that recently launched the most bizarre adverts promoting the benefits of CO2.
LATEST PROGRAM RESEARCH
This new report, “Public Enemies: Assessing MDB and G20 international finance institutions’ energy finance” looks at G20 country and MDB traceable international public finance for fossil fuels from 2020-2022 and finds they are still backing at least USD 47 billion per year in oil, gas, and coal projects.
This briefing assesses Shell’s fossil fuel extraction plans in light of Shell's appeal of a Dutch court verdict requiring the company to take responsibility for its climate pollution. Our analysis shows that Shell continues to plan for levels of oil and gas production and investment that undermine the world’s chances of curtailing climate disaster.
The countries that produce oil and gas from the North Sea (Norway, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark) rank among the countries with the greatest economic capacity and responsibility to rapidly phase out extraction, and to finance just transitions to renewable energy solutions domestically and abroad.