• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022 January 31, 2023
Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB January 31, 2023
Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty January 31, 2023
Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds January 31, 2023
Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing January 23, 2023
Next
Prev

Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty Would Address ‘Imminent Threat’ of Climate Breakdown

October 26, 2018
Reading time: 3 minutes

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty signing July 1, 1968 Today In History/Facebook

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty signing July 1, 1968 Today In History/Facebook

1
SHARES
 

With climate breakdown an “imminent threat” to humanity, an opinion piece this week in The Guardian is calling for an international fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty to avert calamity.

“A new line in the sand is needed to underpin the existing [Paris] climate agreement, to exert influence over the immediate choices of policy-makers,” write author and campaigner Andrew Simms and Peter Newell of the Centre for Global Political Economy at the University of Sussex. Their post points to the disconnect between the urgency of the IPCC’s recent report on 1.5°C pathways and the response from major governments and fossils.

  • Be among the first to read The Energy Mix Weekender
  • A brand new weekly digest containing exclusive and essential climate stories from around the world.
  • The Weekender:The climate news you need.
New!
Subscribe

“At the very least,” they write, “the science should mandate a moratorium in rich countries on any further expansion of the fossil fuel industry, or any infrastructure dependent on it.”

As a model, they cite the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), adopted 50 years ago after a three-year fit of “rapid diplomacy”, despite an “immense security threat” occurring at the height of Cold War mistrust. One option, they say, would be for a fossil deal to adopt and adapt the three pillars of the original non-proliferation treaty: non-proliferation itself, disarmament, and promoting peaceful uses of technology.

“The first step in the nuclear treaty process was a stock take of who had what weapons,” Simms and Newell write. “Why not cut to the chase and agree to assess those fossil fuel reserves which, if burned, would carry us across the 1.5C° warming line, and monitor their non-use and any measures likely to lead to the proliferation of fossil fuels?” Or, in the words of Carbon Tracker’s Mark Campanale: “What we need is a global, public register setting out who controls the reserves from where the CO2 is coming.”

Adapting the NPT’s disarmament pillar would mean rapidly substituting clean energy for fossil fuels, the two authors continue. “We know this can be done in ways which would also save tens of millions of lives by improving air quality,” they note. “But ‘disarmament’ would also be delivered by following the climate scientists’ three-point plan for action carrying the ‘highest benefits’: lowering energy demand, lowering material consumption, and switching to food choices that are low-carbon (in other words more plant-based food).”

In a climate context, promoting “peaceful” uses of technology “would mean massively expanding existing initiatives to compensate poorer countries for leaving fossil fuels in the ground, while ensuring access to clean energy and the technology needed for development,” they add. “Funds could also be redirected from the staggering $10 million per minute that governments give in fossil fuel subsidies.”

As far back as 1988, at a conference in Toronto, “climatic upheaval was described as a threat ‘second only to nuclear war’, a sentiment endorsed from the CIA to MI5 and the United Nations,” Simms and Newell conclude. “National efforts are crucial, but a new fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty supported by movements calling to leave fossil fuels in the ground would provide a transparent and fair means to stop climate breakdown.”

They add that “the best way to mark the 50th anniversary of the NPT would be to begin negotiation of its fossil fuel equivalent.” (h/t to The Energy Mix subscriber Bill Henderson for pointing us to this story)



in COP Conferences, Ending Emissions, Energy Subsidies, International Agencies & Studies

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Mike Mozart/Flickr
Ending Emissions

BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022

February 4, 2023
331
Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures
Canada

Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB

January 31, 2023
196
CONFENIAE
Ending Emissions

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
61

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Mike Mozart/Flickr

BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022

February 4, 2023
331
Sam Balto/YouTube

Elementary School’s Bike Bus Brings ‘Sheer Joy’ to Portland Neighbourhood

February 5, 2023
262
Lucio Santos/flickr

Canadian Banks Increased Fossil Investment in 2021, Report Card Shows

November 27, 2022
116
openthegovernment.org

BREAKING: U.S. Senate Passes Historic $369B Climate Package

August 8, 2022
541

Recent Posts

Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures

Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB

January 31, 2023
196
CONFENIAE

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
61
Ken Teegardin www.SeniorLiving.Org/flickr

Virtual Power Plants Hit an ‘Inflection Point’

January 31, 2023
125
/snappy goat

Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds

January 31, 2023
94
Victorgrigas/wikimedia commons

World Bank Climate Reforms Too ‘Timid and Slow,’ Critics Warn

January 31, 2023
42
Doc Searls/Twitter

Guilbeault Could Intervene on Ontario Greenbelt Development

January 31, 2023
132
Next Post
skeeze / Pixabay

New Boreal Forest Mapping Foresees Increase in Heat, Insects, Wildfires

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}