500+ International Groups: Biden Must Stop Fossil Fuel Expansion Ahead of September Climate Summit

Lai Cheng June 16, 2023 0 Comments

WASHINGTON (15 June 2023) – More than 500 groups, from 6 continents, sent a letter to President Biden today demanding he stop fossil fuel expansion ahead of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s Climate Ambition Summit this September.

The letter demands the world’s top polluter take urgent action to phase out fossil fuel production and slow global climate catastrophe.

The latest climate science is clear that any new fossil fuel development is incompatible with international goals to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. A global fossil fuel phaseout is necessary to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change, and those nations that have the most financial resources, and that have contributed the most to the climate emergency, must lead the way. Accordingly, Guterres has said the ticket to entry for the United States, and other wealthy nations, is ending fossil fuel expansion and beginning a phase out of existing fossil fuel production.

Currently, the United States is the world’s top oil and gas producer, and a top fossil fuel exporter. It is also the world’s largest historic contributor of fossil fuel pollution. The Biden administration has cemented this legacy with record drilling approvals on public lands and an embarrassing list of approvals for climate bombs like the Willow project in Alaskan wilderness.

President Biden has an outsized responsibility to lead a global and just transition away from fossil fuels. This includes stopping approvals for fossil fuel projects, phasing out fossil fuel production on public lands and waters, stopping fossil fuel exports to the extent allowed under the law, and providing the necessary resources for the countries most harmed and least responsible for the climate crisis, especially those in the Global South.

(Consumers Association of Penang is one of the signatories of the letter.)

Read the full letter here:
https://foe.org/…/06/Biden-Climate-Ambition-Letter-1.pdf