GS Paper - III

Should fossil fuels be regulated the way nuclear weapons are? A group of governments and civil society organisations believe so, and are pushing the idea of a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty (FF-NPT).

The idea for an FF-NPT was launched around the time the Paris Agreement was finalised. Over the years, it has received the backing of a wide range of stakeholders, from former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to the indigenous people of Amazon to several small island states most threatened by climate change.

At COP29

• At COP29 in Baku, it was announced that 10 more countries had joined discussions on the FF-NPT this year, though their names were not announced publicly.
• FF-NPT has been endorsed by 13 Small Island Developing States of the pacific, such as Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Tonga, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands, who were least responsible for global warming but are most vulnerable to its impact.
• Colombia, one of the largest coal producers and exporters globally, endorsed FF-NPT in December 2023, at COP28.
• Three days after COP29 began, a network of 70 sustainable banks, the Global Alliance for Banking on Values, said that 25 of its members were endorsing the FF-NPT.
• This is the first collective endorsement of the initiative by financial institutions.

What is FF-NPT?

• The FF-NPT proposes to make it legally binding on nations to end fossil fuel extraction, wind down existing production, and manage a just transition to renewable energy.
• It operates on three pillars — non-proliferation, which is a global cooperation model to end the expansion of coal, oil and gas production; a fair phase-out, which comprises an equitable plan to shut down existing fossil fuel production in a way that nations with the capacity and historical responsibility for emissions transition fastest and empowers others; and ‘just transition’, which calls for fast-tracking the adoption of renewable energy and economic diversification away from fossil fuels such that no worker, community or country is left behind.
• Since it was conceptualised in 2016 and officially launched in 2019, the FF-NPT has hit the wall of finance.