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What is the fossil fuel divestment movement? Look, high in the sky! Pillars of light! Biodiversity needs the same protection as the climate, say scientists, activists at COP27

What is the fossil fuel divestment movement?

(Jeff J. Mitchell/Reuters) What On Earth18:17What is a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty? A hallmark of global climate summits in recent years has been calls from activists to cut back on fossil fuel use. But at this year’s COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, leaders from some island nations are adding their voices to that chorus, urging world leaders to adopt a Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Fossil Fuels. “More fossil fuel extraction means more loss and damage to our island homes,” said Samoan climate activist Brianna Fruean, speaking at COP27. “A COP that does not deal with fossil fuels is a COP that does not address the root cause of the climate crisis and a COP that is complicit in the destruction of my people.” The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty is a proposed international agreement to end all new fossil fuel exploration and production and phase out existing fossil fuel production to meet the global climate target of 1.5 C. The campaign states a recent study in the journal Nature that nearly 60 percent of the oil and methane gas and 90 percent of the coal must remain in the ground to achieve this goal. The proposed treaty also calls on governments to pursue a fair transition to renewable energy for all workers worldwide. The Pacific island nation of Tuvalu called for a Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Fossil Fuels in the opening days of COP27, the first time a country has done so at an international climate conference. Tuvalu was only the second country to publicly make such a demand, following neighboring Vanuatu, which requested it in September. The treaty has the support of international organizations such as the World Health Organization and the Vatican. The European Parliament approved the proposal in October, encouraging its member states to work on its development. Seventy cities and sub-national governments around the world have also signed on to support the treaty, along with thousands of scientists, academics, researchers and religious leaders. The fossil fuel industry has made huge profits this year – in part due to energy shortages caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – which has caught the attention of world leaders and raised questions at COP27 about whether those gains should be used to pay the costs of climate change. At the opening of the conference, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley (pictured above) called on oil and gas companies to contribute 10 cents of every dollar of profit to a fund to help poor countries recover from natural disasters. climate change. “This is what our people are waiting for,” he said. Growing international pressure on the fossil fuel industry included sharp words from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who raised the issue of “false zero commitments” while releasing the a new report on net zero commitments undertaken by companies, financial institutions, cities and regions. Net zero commitments from companies are of primary importance to Catherine McKenna, the former Canadian federal environment minister and current head of the expert panel that drafted the report. The report offers recommendations on how to ensure these promises are kept, including tackling greenwashing through government regulations. As for the net zero promises made by companies, McKenna told What On Earth host Laura Lynch that it’s hard “to track exactly how people are doing because they’re not reporting transparently.” One of the report’s recommendations is for the United Nations to create a publicly accessible Global Climate Action Portal where companies must report their progress annually with independently verified data. At the same time, more than 600 fossil fuel lobbyists registered to attend COP27, according to an advocacy group. What On Earth requested interviews with industry representatives about the demands to phase out fossil fuels. The Pathways Alliance, an organization representing oil companies, initially agreed, then rescinded and later gave an interview on CBC radio Home. She sent a written statement saying she is in Sharm el-Sheikh to present plans for carbon capture and storage in Alberta, part of its plan to reach net zero by 2050. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) declined an interview request. Responding to questions about a call for fossil fuel companies to compensate vulnerable countries with some of the profits they’ve made this year, CAPP sent a written statement saying its members are paying increased royalties to the Canadian government because of higher oil prices and of natural gas, and that the government can determine the best use of these funds. CAPP also said that “global demand for natural gas and oil will remain strong for decades, and Canada has a role to play in providing secure, low-emission resources to the world’s energy mix.” But McKenna said fossil fuel development must end as soon as possible if the world is to meet its climate goals. “That’s the science from the IPCC,” he said, stressing that modeling from the International Energy Agency “also shows that.”
He said Canada, like Europe, must eventually move toward regulating big companies in order to meet national climate goals. “Governments need to step up,” he said. “Laws that require it will really drive that change. And, gosh, we need it.” — Rachel Saunders

Reader comments

Paul Peckford: “Thanks for the many informative articles, especially the ones about climate change and the many terrible negative effects it has on our daily lives no matter where we live! The horrible effects of pollution are closely related to many areas of climate change as well! amazed by the number of people who deny climate change, despite all the reliable scientific knowledge supporting its existence and associated negative effects!”

Back issues of What on Earth? it’s right here.

CBC News has a dedicated climate page that you can find here. Also, check out our radio show and podcast. Can you put a price on a park? It’s been a year since the devastating floods and deadly landslides that hit BC. This week on What On Earth, we hear why Edmonton is leading the charge in Canada with a “climate budget” and head to Oslo, Norway to find out how theirs has led to some big changes. What the heck now airs on Sundays at 11am. ET, at 11:30 a.m. in Newfoundland and Labrador. Subscribe to your favorite podcast app or listen on demand at CBC Listen.

The Big Picture: Light pillars

When Ryota Suyama awoke around 4 a.m. on a recent Tuesday, it looked as if an alien invasion had taken over the town of Canmore, Alta., as columns of light shot into the night sky. “It was kind of surreal,” Suyama said. “We’ve seen…the northern lights a few times, but we’ve never seen pillars of light before.” The columns of light were actually visible from Spruce Grove to Calgary. They’re called light pillars and appear on very cold, clear evenings when tiny ice crystals form in the atmosphere, according to Jeroen Stil, an associate professor in the department of physics and astronomy at the University of Calgary. You need temperatures below about -20C for the ice crystals to form, Stil says, although Roland Dechesne, former president of the Royal Astronomical Society in downtown Calgary, Canada, says he has seen them at about -11C. In one interview at Calgary EyeopenerStil said it’s not technically a pillar of light — “it’s actually an optical illusion.” On calm evenings, the crystals hang at just the right angle to act as small mirrors that reflect any light shining down on them, such as a street lamp or lighting in a commercial building. Like a rainbow, you could never approach or move through these columns of light, Stil says. The ice crystals hang about halfway between your eyes and the pillar, so if you move, the appearance of the illusion will change. — Taylor Simmons (Submitted by Ryota Suyama)

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Biodiversity needs the same protection as the climate, say scientists, activists at COP27

(Mike Bedell/CPAWS/The Canadian Press) Civil society groups, indigenous activists and scientists are standing together at the COP27 climate conference in Egypt and demanding firm action next month at the UN Biodiversity Conference hosted in Montreal. This conference aims to get governments to agree on a framework that will “bring about a transformation in society’s relationship with biodiversity”, which is in rapid decline worldwide due to climate change and other factors. “The climate and biodiversity crises are deeply intertwined and must be addressed simultaneously,” said Lucy Almond, president of the Nature 4 Climate Coalition, a group of 20 organizations including the World Wildlife Fund and the World Resources Institute. He called COP15 in Montreal a once-in-a-decade opportunity to forge an international agreement aimed at tackling both crises together. The key architects of the 2015 Paris Agreement — Christiana Figueres, Laurence Tubiana, Laurent Fabius and Manuel Pulgar-Vidal — added their voices to calls for COP15 to create a sister agreement. Currently, the planet appears to be on the brink of the sixth mass extinction event — the first to be fired by humans — with approx a million species is already in danger of disappearing. Biodiversity loss is due to habitat destruction, pollution, overexploitation and other reasons — and is predicted to…