As the high-level summit on Transitioning away from Fossil Fuels takes place in Santa Marta, Colombia, ActionAid welcomes the call from an emerging coalition of Global South countries for a new legal instrument to phase out fossil fuels.
Ministers and officials representing governments from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Pacific met for a three-day conference in advance of the official Santa Marta summit, and concluded their discussions yesterday.
Teresa Anderson, Global Lead on Climate Justice for ActionAid International, said:
“It’s no coincidence that the countries being hit hardest by climate change are the first to want to phase out fossil fuels. This shows that there is a huge appetite for the Santa Marta conference to set the stage for a Fossil Fuel Treaty.
UN climate negotiations continue to be essential for bringing every country into alignment. But a new Treaty can act as a parallel and complementary space for those that want to move faster in key areas such as phasing out fossil fuels, just transitions, and debt justice, without first having to get sign-off from all nations.
This has the potential to change the global dynamic around fossil fuel governance. The conversation is shifting from ‘hold your horses’ to ‘let’s just get on with it! The era of fossil fuels must end. Countries on the frontline of the crisis are leading the way, making history and it is time the rest of the world caught up.”
ENDS
Teresa Anderson, Global Lead on Climate Justice for ActionAid International, is available for media engagements. For media requests, please email christal.james@actionaid.org or call 7046659743.
About ActionAid
ActionAid is a global federation working with more than 41 million people living in more than 71 of the world’s poorest countries. We want to see a just, fair, and sustainable world in which everybody enjoys the right to a life of dignity and freedom from poverty and oppression. We work to achieve social justice and gender equality and to eradicate poverty. n which everybody enjoys the right to a life of dignity, and freedom from poverty and oppression. We work to achieve social justice and gender equality and to eradicate poverty.
