Today in Vanuatu’s capital Port Vila, leaders of 6 Pacific ocean states made an ambitious collective call to phase out fossil fuels, support a rapid and just Pacific transition to renewable energy, and strengthen related legal obligations - including to “prevent Ecocide”.
Following the 2nd Pacific Ministerial Dialogue on Pathways for the Global Just Transition hosted in Vanuatu from 15 - 17 March, the governments of Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Tonga, Fiji, Niue, and the Solomon Islands committed to creating a “Fossil Fuel Free Pacific” and called for all countries worldwide to end the expansion of fossil fuel production and manage a global, equitable and unqualified phase-out of coal, oil and gas.
The full outcome document can be read HERE and makes specific commitments to join the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance and to call for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The call in respect of ecocide is found under section 4 of the Port Vila Call, for “Redoubled efforts to reaffirm, strengthen and codify legal obligations with respect to the global phase out of fossil fuels.” Subsection d. calls specifically for: “Strengthening the rule of international and domestic law to prevent Ecocide and protect the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment from environmental degradation related to the extraction, production, supply and use of fossil fuels.”