‘Pessimism is a luxury we can’t afford’: Kumi Naidoo on fighting fossil fuels with art and culture

The new head of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty on Cop29 and why activism is not winning enough

Top climate scientists have long warned that swiftly curbing fossil fuel production will be necessary to avert climate catastrophe. Yet international climate treaties have failed to include such commitments. Despite pressure from vulnerable nations and activists, in the agreement signed at international climate talks last year, world leaders failed to commit to a fossil fuel phase-out", instead calling for a transition away" from coal, oil and gas. Its a longstanding problem: the 2015 Paris agreement does not even mention that fossil fuels are responsible for global heating.

That paradox led climate-vulnerable nations and civil society groups to launch the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. First dreamed up following the Paris climate talks and officially launched in 2019, the proposed treaty would include concrete plans for the phase-out of fossil fuels, complementing the Paris agreement. It has been endorsed by 13 countries including Colombia and vulnerable island nations such as Vanuatu, as well as hundreds of elected officials, 118 cities and municipalities, and thousands of organizations. Inspired in part by the 1968 nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which aimed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, the initiative calls on nations to agree to halt the expansion of coal, oil and gas.