In a plea to mitigate the accelerating climate crisis, a United Nations Special Rapporteur has called on nations to urgently eliminate their dependence on fossil fuels. This comes after the past decade become the hottest on record, with average global temperatures reaching 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in 2024, thus breaching the Paris Agreement threshold. The appeal was presented as part of Elisa Morgera’s latest report to the Human Rights Council (HRC).
The report emphasizes the necessity of prioritizing a paradigm shift toward the defossilization of economies, highlighted as a pressing human rights priority. Morgera identifies fossil fuels as a significant driver of climate change as well as other environmental concerns such as biodiversity loss and toxic pollution. This, in turn, exacerbates social inequalities and human rights abuses, impacting vulnerable populations the hardest, including small island nations and children globally.
Morgera’s recommendations extend beyond energy policy, advocating for revocation of existing exploration licenses, regulation of fossil fuel trade, and penalties for greenwashing. Moreover, she emphasized the necessity to deter tax evasion and green-laundering benefiting the fossil fuel industry under a proposed UN framework for international tax cooperation.
Furthermore, the report highlights the obstructive strategies of fossil fuel companies that limit effective climate action, including increasing their influence in international forums such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change COP meetings. At the national level, there are attempts to leverage misinformation to delay the transition to renewable energy sources, perpetuated through various media channels as seen in research by the CAAD coalition.
The timing of this report coincides with a major heatwave engulfing Southern Europe and significant wildfires in countries such as Turkey and France. A phenomenon referred to as a “heat dome” is cited as the immediate catalyst for these events, underscoring the immediacy of addressing climate-related challenges.