UN Expert Demands Tough Penalties for Fossil Fuel Industry

A leading UN expert has called for criminal sanctions against those spreading disinformation about the climate crisis and a complete ban on lobbying and advertising by the fossil fuel industry.

In her new report presented to the General Assembly in Geneva yesterday, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change Elisa Morgera reminded that the US, UK, Canada, Australia and other fossil fuel-rich countries are obliged under international law to completely phase out oil, gas and coal by 2030. Morgera argued that these countries should pay compensation to communities harmed in the process.

Morgera, who advocated for a ban on shale gas, oil sands and gas flaring, also said fossil fuel exploration, subsidies, investments and fake technological solutions that will make future generations dependent on dirty and increasingly costly oil, gas and coal must also end.

“These Countries Are Accountable for Failing to Prevent Widespread Human Rights Harm”

Morgera, who is also a professor of global environmental law at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, said: “These countries are responsible for failing to prevent widespread human rights harms resulting from fossil fuel extraction, use and waste, such as climate change and the planetary crises we face, such as biodiversity loss, plastic pollution and economic inequalities.”

The Fossil Fuel Industry Systematically Blocks Climate Action

The report provides overwhelming evidence of the serious, far-reaching and cumulative harms that the fossil fuel industry has inflicted on nearly every human right, including fundamental rights such as the right to life, self-determination, health, food, water, shelter, education, access to information and livelihoods.

Morgera argues that our economies must be completely “ defossilized .” Merely switching to clean energy, he says, is not enough to stop the widespread and growing harm caused by fossil fuels.

To comply with existing international human rights law, states must inform their citizens about the widespread harm caused by fossil fuels and explain that phasing out oil, gas and coal is the most effective way to combat the climate crisis.

Morgera also argues that the public has a right to know how the fossil fuel industry and its allies have systematically prevented access to this information and meaningful climate action for the past 60 years. According to the UN rapporteur, states should also ban fossil fuel advertising and lobbying. Morgera also argued that greenwashing by media and advertising companies should be criminalized and that attacks on climate advocates should be met with harsh penalties.

Communities around the world face increasing threats from sea level rise, desertification, drought, glacier melt, extreme temperatures, floods and other climate-related impacts. In addition, there are deadly air pollution, water scarcity, biodiversity loss and the forced displacement of indigenous and rural peoples linked to every phase of fossil fuel use.

“Fossil Fuel Industry Must Pay Compensation”

Fossil fuel and petrochemical companies, on the other hand, have enjoyed huge profits, subsidies, tax avoidance schemes, and excessive protection under international investment law, yet they have made no progress in reducing energy poverty and economic inequality.

According to the report, while oil and gas companies worldwide will earn $2.4 trillion and coal companies $2.5 trillion in 2023, removing fossil fuel subsidies totaling more than $1.4 trillion in 2023 in OECD members and 48 other countries could alone reduce emissions by 10% by 2030.

Redirecting these subsidies would help wealthy fossil fuel producing states meet their legal obligations to help developing countries phase out fossil fuels, while also providing financial and other redress for the widespread human rights violations and environmental damage they continue to cause.

Compensation could also be funded by imposing penalties for damage caused by fossil fuel companies, tightening the industry’s tax evasion and avoidance practices, and introducing wealth and sudden profits taxes. The report also suggests that governments could require industry to finance climate adaptation, mitigation and loss-and-damage through climate super funds or other mechanisms directly accessible to affected communities.

“Transition to Renewable Energy is Now Cheaper”

Lands wrongfully seized for fossil fuel operations must be cleared, restored and returned to indigenous peoples, Afro-descendant communities and peasants if they want to take them back, or fairly compensated if they do not, Morgera said.

Speaking to the Guardian, Morgera said the transition to a renewable energy-based economy was now becoming both cheaper and healthier for society. “This transition could save taxpayers money that is currently spent on responding to climate change, health care costs and replacing lost tax revenues from fossil fuel companies. It could be the single biggest contribution we can make to human health. The reason this transition is seen as radical and unrealistic is because fossil fuel companies are so good at making it seem that way.”