Download fossil fuel industry ban climate negotiations

Why Banning the Fossil Fuel Industry from Climate Change Negotiations May Not be Necessary
- Pranav Prakash, Young India Fellowship
This past year has witnessed some remarkable success in the global battle against climate
change, particularly in comparison to the first half of the decade which began with the spillover
of the infamous ‘climategate’ and swiftly followed with a measurable turn towards a more
skeptical position on global warming, at least partly due to the disappointing Copenhagen
conference of 2009. The fossil fuel industry now seems poised for an inevitable burial, hopefully
never to be dug up again. After years of unmitigated damage to the environment, relentless
protests by climate change activists and civil society organizations from around the world finally
seemed to have been afforded the gravitas the situation deserves, when a landmark agreement
was forged at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Conference of
Parties (COP 21) at Paris last year, pledging to move away from fossil fuels.
Over 175 nations have signed the Paris agreement since, resulting in the largest number of
countries to have ever signed an international agreement on a single day, when the document
was opened for signing on April 22, earlier this year.
With the French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius describing the deal, at Paris, as ambitious and
balanced, the urgency of this historic collective global action seems to have been prompted by
the record-breaking rise in temperatures and CO2 levels; 2016 is estimated to surpass the
global average heat record that, even more distressingly, was set just last year and CO2 levels
have crossed the 400 parts per million (ppm) threshold, almost twice the pre-industrial level.
Large protests that have been characteristic of at least the last three COP conferences,
including COP 20 at Lima and COP 19 at Warsaw, called for a ban on the fossil fuel industry
from climate change negotiations. As ironic as it might seem to the uninitiated, the fossil fuel
industry was reported to have been among the biggest sponsors for the conferences at Poland
and Paris. For the French conference, public money didn’t suffice to finance the conference and
the result was that corporations were invited to pitch in; and pitch, they did - about €40 million
came from the private sector which owned coal-fired plants, investments in oil sands exploration
and shale gas fracking . Described brilliantly by May Boeve, the executive director of 350.org,
an international climate campaign, “when it comes to the UN Climate Talks, the fossil fuel
companies aren’t just looking for a seat at the table, they’re looking to burn the table down. Until
we can challenge their political power, we won’t see real climate progress.”
While the campaigns to prevent fossil fuel companies from participating in the conferences
haven’t ultimately succeeded and while there doesn’t yet exist legislation preventing their
participation in climate negotiations, the upcoming COP 22 in Morocco seems to carry a bit
more promise than its predecessors.
Having relied on fossil fuels to meet most of its domestic energy demand, Morocco sealed its
presence as a regional climate leader by choosing to successfully cut all subsidies on fuel in
2015. This move has not only bolstered renewable energy investment but has also improved
government expenditure on other sectors such as education, proving that the economy doesn’t
have to take a backseat for climate change adaptation to work.
The misconception that the elimination of fossil fuel subsidies will hurt the poor has been
disproved by an IMF study that indicated that it is the wealthiest 20 percent of the population
that gets a disproportionate 43 percent of the benefit from fossil fuel subsidies globally, while the
poorest 20 percent gets only 7 percent. In fact, the poorest 60 percent of the population still
doesn't get as much benefit as the wealthiest.
Despite having concluded that fossil fuel subsidisation performs poorly, both as economic policy
as well as environment policy, the world’s fossil fuel subsidies amount to upwards of $500
billion. Reforms are challenging, especially in developing countries where the developmental
needs of vulnerable group must be taken into account.
In July, at the Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF), the leaders of developing Pacific
nations undertook the task of preparing the first international treaty with binding targets on
renewable energy and a ban on the expansion of coal mines, along with the removal of
subsidies for fossil fuel mining and consumption. While it is common knowledge that rising sea
levels cause the most damage to these island nations, that which is equally worthy of praise is
how landmark policy initiatives come from countries that are still finding the ropes of sustainable
development.
Closer to home, India just ratified the Paris Climate Change Agreement, on the auspicious birth
anniversary of Gandhi and our climate leadership has been lauded by environmentalists
worldwide. Leading by example, developing nations have risen to the occasion and brought the
world a step closer to realizing the Paris Agreement’s target of limiting global warming to 1.5
degrees celsius. It’s up to the developed world, now, to match.