Over 500 Global Groups Call To End War In Ukraine And Reliance Of Fossil Fuels
Editor
May 1, 2022
Over 500 civil society organizations from six continents have urged world leaders to renew international efforts to stop the Russian war in Ukraine and to end a dangerous dependence on fossil fuels that is driving war, instability and conflicts globally.
Two months after the start of this war this letter calls on national leaders to view this moment as an inflection point and usher in global peace, international solidarity and stability that is built around the rapid, just and equitable transition to renewables and energy efficiency technologies.
The letter states: “Humanity now faces a cascade of emergencies. The Russian military, business and political elites around President Putin are committing brutal crimes in Russia’s war in Ukraine, annihilating basic principles of state sovereignty and undermining democracy. At the same time, the climate crisis is wreaking an “atlas of human suffering”. These crises may seem entirely independent, but they share the same dangerous thread: dependence on fossil fuels.”
The letter specifically urges leaders to stop fossil fuel expansion, tax windfall profits, and eliminate subsidies and other financial support to the oil, coal, and gas industry. The letter also demands that safe, distributed, democratic renewable energy systems and energy-efficiency technologies proliferate in the place of fossil fuels and reach the one billion people still without electricity.
“Importantly, the renewable energy future must not repeat the violence of the extractive, fossil fuel past. Justice must ground this transition to redress the climate, colonialist, racist, socioeconomic, and ecological injustices of the fossil fuel era,” the letter states.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently released a report confirming the scientific mandate to make rapid and deep cuts in carbon emissions by phasing out all fossil fuels and making transformative shifts for energy efficiency, renewable energy, and forest and ecosystem conservation for a viable chance to preserve a livable planet.
FAQs