Opinion by Dr Kumi Naidoo
President of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative
For decades we have been speaking about the climate crisis as a looming threat. Today we must confront the brutal truth: the crisis is no longer approaching, it is already here.
The science is clear: if humanity is to have any realistic chance of limiting warming to 1.5°C, there can be no new fossil fuel projects. None. Fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) are the primary source of carbon or greenhouse gas emissions that are accelerating climate change. We have to shift to renewable energy at a rapid pace.
For more than 30 years the world has gathered at international climate negotiations, most prominently the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP) and a range of United Nations meetings.
These gatherings have produced powerful speeches and some ambitious declarations but then everyone walks away. Where is the progress? The gap between political rhetoric and scientific reality grows wider every year.
Part of the reason for the lack of international action from COP and other United Nations pledges, is simple: the industries and lobbies most responsible for the crisis have embedded themselves inside the very processes meant to regulate them. Fossil fuel lobbyists now attend these negotiations in record numbers. It is like inviting tobacco companies to enforce anti-smoking laws. Another huge stumbling block is the climate denialism coming from Trump and the Republicans.
This is why I now work with the global Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. This is why we are having the inaugural International Conference for the Just Transition away from Fossil Fuels in November this year in Santa Mata, Colombia. Voluntary promises are no longer enough. At this conference we will be tackling the problem of fossil fuels head-on. The purpose is simple but powerful: just as the world created treaties to control nuclear weapons or landmines, we must now create a binding international framework to phase out fossil fuels.
We are expecting 60 countries to attend and to achieve a tangible outcome, namely, getting a large number of governments actively pursuing a fast, fair and funded transition away from fossil fuels. As part of this, there needs to be clear financial support from developed countries to accelerate the transition in the global south. It has to be astutely managed to ensure it holds the major historical polluters accountable and that the funds are invested where they should be and not banked by corrupt recipients.
South Africa has been invited. SA is the generally considered the 14th largest emitter of carbon or greenhouse gases globally, but as a continent, Africa contributes the least carbon/greenhouse gas emissions, yet we are among those paying the highest price. This is not simply an environmental issue, it is a political and moral failure of the global economic system. It is fundamentally a justice issue.
Time is not on our side. Across Africa, the consequences of climate change have become severe lived realities. Farmers know it - they are either experiencing severe droughts, with rains failing to arrive when they should, or they are experiencing extreme floods, both devasting.
Floods across the continent have destroyed infrastructure and displaced vast numbers of people. Coastal fishing communities are experiencing ocean warming causing a severe decline in the fish populations on which they depend. Rising temperatures and shifting environmental conditions are accelerating the spread of diseases affecting both humans and livestock. These are a few examples of people at the literal coalface of climate change.
We see the consequences everywhere. We are seeing biodiversity loss at an unprecedented scale. Climate change and biodiversity loss are often treated as separate issues. Yet they are symptoms of the same underlying global disease: our addiction to fossil fuels and an extractive economic model that treats the natural environment and ecosystems on which we depend as disposable - we’re talking about the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat.
The planet is sending unmistakable signals that we are pushing our ecological systems beyond their limits. Yet even as the crisis deepens, Africa possesses enormous potential to chart a different path. Our continent is blessed with some of the world’s richest renewable energy resources - solar, wind and wave power. If we invest strategically in research, innovation and manufacturing, Africa could become a leader in clean energy technologies.
China has shown the way. China saw the future and is now dominating the electric vehicle market and is the biggest exporter of solar panels worldwide. Obviously none of us believe we can switch things over tomorrow, but if we accept the science and get moving, we can address the context-specific needs of our people. We need decentralised micro solar grids to power localised areas, address rural energy access, and create jobs in each zone. We have to diversify away from old-style, centralised fossil fuel technology because if we don’t it will be at our environmental social and economic peril.
Time is running out. If we delay further, the patents, intellectual property and industries of the future will be controlled elsewhere, and Africa will once again be forced into a dependent role in the global economy. - ends
Nelson Mandela University has a series of Institutional Public Lectures, hosted by the Vice-Chancellor, aimed at engaging the public on critical societal, intellectual or ethical issues.