Equitable Pact for Global Finance 'needs' to Tackle Fossil Fuels

The Paris Summit for a New Global Financing Pact -- seen as a stepping stone behind the push to reform the global financial system -- opening on Thursday with the stated aim of "laying the foundations for a new system that will meet our common challenges: tackling inequality, climate change and protecting biodiversity".

The global financial architecture reform is supposed to make it fit to address the climate crisis and development challenges.

However, fossil fuel production is not part of the agenda whereas the role of coal, oil and gas in the global economy is decisive.

Rebecca Byrnes, Deputy Director of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, said: "If governments are serious about reforming the current global financial system, they need to move to a truly radical transformation that prioritises a global just transition through new development pathways and tackling climate change at the source -- that is, phasing out fossil fuels.

"The New Global Financing Pact Summit must shift the finance from the industries most responsible for our climate and inequality crises, and commit to mobilising the trillion of new, grant-based financing needed. A Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty is the missing legal mechanism that can incentive and enforce the finance needed for a just transition away from destructive fossil fuel production."

Harjeet Singh, Global Engagement Director at the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, said: "Calls to reform the World Bank and the IMF are becoming ever more urgent and ambitious as this global financial system, established by Global North countries and primarily based on fossil fuel production, has proven to serve only their interests.

"Faced with the climate and development gaps that divide up our world a little more every day, it is crucial to revert the global financial architecture and make polluters pay for the damages they have been causing for decades. It is not about charity nor solidarity. It is about climate justice and that's what the Fossil Fuel Treaty is all about: breaking our dependence on fossil fuel production through a fair and sustainable financial system."

The Paris Summit will be a first step to build momentum towards a global financial transformation at key international governance gatherings where decisions will be taken, such as the G20 Summit in India, and the COP28 conference in Dubai.

The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative is spurring international cooperation to end new development of fossil fuels, phase out existing production within the agreed climate limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius and develop plans to support workers, communities and countries dependent on fossil fuels to create secure and healthy livelihoods.