‘Peace with nature’ is impossible unless we move away from fossil fuels

This post is by Robbie MacPherson, a former Green Alliance politics adviser, and now a Churchill Fellow spending time in Denmark and Colombia investigating what the UK can learn from their experiences of moving away from oil and gas. It is part of our COP16 miniseries, a collection of blogs spotlighting this year’s UN Biodiversity Conference.  

COP16, the largest ever UN biodiversity summit, hosted in Cali, Colombia just concluded. One hundred and ninety six countries made progress in establishing the ‘Cali fund’ which has the potential to raise $1billion a year for biodiversity from the use of Digital Sequencing Information (DSI) on genetic resources. Large companies who benefit from DSI will pay into the fund with 50 per cent of it set aside for the needs of indigenous people and local communities. Further advancements were made on supporting the participation of indigenous people in implementing the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) – agreed at COP15 in Montreal with the goal of protecting and restoring 30 per cent of land and sea by 2030 –  and recognising the contribution that people of African descent make towards safeguarding nature.

However, a fortnight of tense negotiations ended abruptly when the summit was no longer quorate. Kicking key decisions, including on whether to establish a new wider biodiversity fund, down the road. Alongside this, countries failed to reiterate the promise made at COP28 in Dubai to “transition away from fossil fuels” in the final text. Without global recognition that the fulfilment of biodiversity goals requires the world to phase out coal, oil and gas then the hope of ‘peace with nature’ will not be realised.

Climate and nature are inseparable
Climate breakdown, predominantly the result of fossil fuel consumption, is a major driver of biodiversity loss, whilst tackling climate change depends on a thriving natural environment. Yet conversations on the two topics often occur separately.

At COP16, in a bid to improve the synergy between the climate and nature COPs, there was recognition that the temperature goal of the Paris Agreement must be kept within reach, given the impacts of climate change on biodiversity loss will be much lower at 1.5^oC of warming compared with 2^oC. The latest United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) 2024 emissions gap report, however, finds that 1.5^oC will be out of reach within a few years unless countries dramatically ratchet up action to cut emissions.

Meanwhile, governments around the world, mainly of richer countries such as the United States, and Canada, but also the current climate COP troika (the UAE, Azerbaijan and Brazil) continue to expand fossil fuel production. Offshore oil and gas activity, for example, makes achieving targets 1, 2, 3, 7, 8 and 18 of the Global Biodiversity Framework – covering habitat conservation, ecosystem restoration and sustainable use – unlikely.

Within our own borders, the approval of Rosebank, the largest undeveloped oilfield in the UK, which would have a pipeline cut through the Faroe-Shetland Sponge Belt, a protected seabed, risking damage to an already fragile ecosystem, demonstrates the reality of this threat. In one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries; this project, which does nothing for energy security or affordability, is unacceptable for both nature and climate and must be stopped.

Oil producing Columbia is endorsing major change
In Colombia, under the leadership of President Gustavo Petro, steps to move away from fossil fuels are being made. The government has halted new oil and gas exploration, joined the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance (BOGA) and is also the first major fossil fuel producer to endorse the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty (FFNPT).

Amidst the negotiations in Cali, Susana Muhamad, COP president and Colombia’s environment minister, emphasised the need to align climate and biodiversity goals. Muhamad’s government, equipped with domestic political leadership, proposed referencing fossil fuels in the COP16 text. But India, China and others opposed this move. This did not stop over 140 indigenous groups, civil society organisations and others urging 200 governments in Cali to stop new oil and gas activity and wind down existing infrastructure, especially in areas of high biodiversity. Nor did it discourage representatives from Small Island Developing States (SIDS), in particular Vanuatu and Fiji, to lead an unsuccessful last minute charge to adopt language on fossil fuels in the final agreement.

Throughout COP16, I heard from frontline campaigners working to stop new fossil fuel projects. For example, groups from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) helped to prevent the issuing of new oil and gas licences in the Congo Basin. They are working to ensure their government does not backtrack on this decision and mobilises resources towards the clean energy transition. Similarly, indigenous leaders from Ecuador shared their struggle against ‘Big Oil’. Last year, the Yasuni people voted – over 58 per cent in favour – to halt oil drilling in Block 43 of the Amazon. They underscored the dangers that oil extraction posed to the environment and how opposing new developments puts their lives at risk.

These testimonies are embodied in the phrase “COPdeLaGente” (COP of the people) which is now being used to describe COP16. But, as with most international environment summits, the attendance of industry interests was well documented. Oil and gas companies, including Equinor, Shell and ExxonMobil, all had staff present at the summit to lobby for the status quo and against positive change.

The UK is well placed to take a lead at the climate summit
With countries now looking to the COP29 climate summit in Baku, there should be hope that multilateralism can still deliver in times of global uncertainty. No doubt, however, the omission of fossil fuels from statements and the inability to deliver on a new biodiversity fund at COP16 will fuel the existing tensions between the Global North and South at COP29, tasked with setting a new goal for climate finance.

With the biodiversity COP now over, the UK must now urgently release an ambitious National Biodiversity Strategy Action Plan (NBSAP) to show how it intends to deliver on the international agreements made.

At the climate summit in Baku next week, the UK must work hard, as it did in Cali, to build partnerships and consensus. Specifically, it should take a lead in ensuring progress on the promise to shift decisively away from fossil fuels. It is well placed to do this, given the recent phasing out of coal power and the commitment to end the licensing of new oil and gas exploration at home.