The age of fossil fuels must end. Here is how a Fossil Fuel Treaty can help.

Fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – touch nearly every part of our daily lives, but not without consequences. Their production and use are driving a global climate crisis. The failure of our governments to act, in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence, may well be the biggest intergenerational human rights violation in history.

Governments from around the world are convening in Colombia this week at the first-ever global conference on the transition away from fossil fuels. This unprecedented meeting represents a crucial opportunity for a “coalition of the willing” to emerge and ensure that a roadmap for a fossil fuel‑free future is adopted.

By shifting away from polluting fossil fuels to sustainable renewable energy produced in a manner consistent with human rights, we can prevent many of the devastating climate-related harms affecting billions of people and nature around the world.

Climate change and fossil fuels – what is the connection?

Climate change refers to large-scale, long-term shifts in the planet’s temperatures and weather patterns. Since the 1700s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change. By burning fossil fuels, we have released ever greater volumes of greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere. These gases trap the sun’s heat, leading to a long-term rise in the planet’s average temperature, which is causing more frequent and severe weather events, such as violent storms and flash floods, as well as slow-onset events such as prolonged drought and rising sea levels.

The world is now warming faster than at any point in recorded history. According to global emissions data from 2024, approximately 69% of global GHG emissions come from the energy sector, when fossil fuels are produced and burned for power, transportation, industrial processes, and other uses such as heating and cooking.

How are fossil fuels linked to our human rights?

Fossil fuel production is driving a global climate crisis that makes existing inequalities worse and puts many people and ecosystems at risk. Toxic pollution, oil spills and waste from these operations threaten the human rights to life, health, water, food and a healthy environment for millions of people. Fossil fuel projects often involve land being appropriated from Indigenous Peoples, trampling on their right to self-determination, their livelihoods and cultural heritage.

Fossil fuel infrastructure itself poses risks for the health and livelihoods of at least 2 billion people globally who live near extraction sites, roughly a quarter of the world’s population. Defenders opposing fossil fuel projects face intimidation, violence and even death, while defending our right to a healthy environment.

It is often already marginalized individuals and groups who bear the brunt of climate change and whose human rights are most at risk. However, climate change will harm almost everyone on the planet, as cost-of-living crises, food insecurity, and environmental degradation deepens.

There is growing evidence that the fossil fuel industry has known for decades about the harmful effects of burning coal, oil and gas and has attempted to block efforts to tackle climate change. Despite the need to defossilize the global economy, fossil fuel companies have been intensifying efforts to lock in profits and continue doing their harmful business as usual. From greenwashing to lobbying and political donations and direct efforts to stifle opposition and undermine environmental human rights defenders, the industry has used a variety of tactics to maximize profits while harms to human rights proliferate.

The age of fossil fuels must end

To protect human rights and our shared future, the era of fossil fuels must come to an end. That means a full, fast, fair and funded phase-out of coal, oil and gas, and an end to the billions of dollars in fossil fuel subsidies that keep this deadly industry alive. Only then can we limit the worst impacts of climate change and ensure that our planet is protected so that both present and future generations can live sustainably and with dignity.

What barriers stand in the way of a transition away from fossil fuels?

• No rules curbing fossil fuel extraction and production: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Paris Agreement set emission goals but no binding limits on fossil fuel production, enabling industry, its financiers and allied governments to expand extraction.
• Traps in international financial architecture: Many lower-income countries face heavy debt burdens which can lead them to turn to fossil fuel production to service their debt and prevent them from investing in renewable energy and climate adaptation to protect their populations from harm.
• Overreliance on private finance to fund the transition: High‑income countries, which are most responsible for climate change, are shirking their obligation to provide the funding lower‑income countries need for climate action. Instead, they rely on private finance. This often pushes countries deeper into debt and limits their ability to fund essential services like health and education. Private finance may help reduce some climate impacts, but it is not suitable for lifesaving adaptation that does not generate profit.
• Trade agreements that favour fossil fuel interests: States that try to put in measures to curb fossil fuel projects often face punitive payouts to the companies under trade agreements that favour foreign investors’ interests.
• Rights under pressure: Environmental human rights defenders and communities on the frontline of the climate crisis are being silenced. Many face intimidation, attacks and restrictive laws for speaking out against extractive projects. These threats are part of a global crackdown on civic space, made worse by punitive laws targeting environmental activists, weak oversight of companies and the growing use of private security to protect fossil fuel infrastructure.

What is the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative?

The Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative is an alliance of nation states and a global network of civil society organizations advocating for a new binding legal instrument to drive a fast and fair global transition away from oil, gas and coal. The proposed Fossil Fuel Treaty could create the conditions under which states will be able to coordinate the end to new exploration and expansion of fossil fuel production, manage a fair phase-out of existing production in line with science, and fund a just transition for workers and affected communities.

It would complement the Paris Agreement by tackling the supply side of the climate crisis and fill a critical gap: today’s climate agreements focus on emissions but do not regulate fossil fuel production, even though extraction is the root cause of the current climate crisis. Instead, many global leaders continue to push for increased fossil fuel production which has put global warming on course to permanently exceed the target of 1.5° C above pre-industrial levels.

The treaty initiative has support that continues to grow from the European Parliament, climate-vulnerable states, cities, health bodies, and civil society organizations like Amnesty International.  

How would the Fossil Fuel Treaty drive real-world change?

The proposed Fossil Fuel Treaty is centred around three pillars:

• Just Transition: Accelerate a fair shift to diversified, accessible, renewable energy,
• Non-Proliferation: Create the conditions to ensure the end the expansion of oil, gas and coal,
• Equitable Phase-Out: Wind down existing fossil fuels to safe levels with wealthy countries leading and supporting others to join.

The treaty is being built on the principles of non-discrimination, participation, transparency, intergenerational equity and accountability, aligning with the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion on legal duties of states to protect the climate for people’s rights to be realized.

What’s next for the Fossil Fuel Treaty?

The ongoing First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels (Santa Marta, 24–29 April 2026) is bringing together governments, academics, private sectors, civil society, and experts to identify ways to achieve phaseout that is legally, economically and socially fair. The meeting will serve as space to coordinate cooperation, share policies that shut off new drivers of fossil fuel demand, and accelerate the planned phasedown of extraction operations in alignment with the 1.5°C temperature goal, a target confirmed by the ICJ Advisory Opinion.

Hosting the conference in a major coal port signals that even fossil fuel-dependent economies want to transition fairly, with the support from historically high-emitting countries such as the Netherlands, a co-host of the cenference. After COP30 stalled on a global phaseout roadmap, the conference hosts (Colombia and the Netherlands) intend to report any progress to the UN ahead of COP31, to be held later this year in Türkiye.

Amnesty International is calling for the conference to result in a clear call for a Fossil Fuel Treaty to be negotiated without delay.

People’s Summit for a Fossil Free Future

Running parallel as the official civil society counterpart, the People’s Summit for a Fossil Free Future is also bringing together Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant communities, trade unions, women, youth activists, and frontline communities. The Summit Declaration will input into a separate People’s Assembly on 27 April that will deliver a unified “People’s Roadmap” to governments attending the High-Level Segment to demand a transition rooted in justice, equity, human rights and peace.

What can you do right now?

For decades, the fossil fuel industry and its sponsors have argued that human development requires fossil fuels. But we now know that, under the guise of economic growth, they have instead served greed and profits, violated rights with near-complete impunity and destroyed the atmosphere, biosphere and oceans. We must stand up against these harmful practices, resist colonial , extractivist economic models and the repression of rights on which the global fossil fuel industry is built, and demand that our leaders deliver on their obligations and commitments.

You can help by calling on your government to endorse the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative, support debt relief and new public finance for just transitions and protect defenders and communities on the frontlines. You can push for social protection and reskilling for workers in the fossil fuel industry and sustainably produced renewable energy access for all. Together we must demand that the ICJ Advisory Opinion, which reaffirmed that environmental protection is imperative to the realization of human rights, is fully implemented.

States must embark on a full, fast, fair and funded phase-out of fossil fuels, and a just transition to renewable energy produced in a manner that is consistent with human rights. Amnesty International urgently calls for the adoption and implementation of a Fossil Fuel Treaty. This is our chance to turn momentum into action to save our planet and humanity’s future.

A fair and defossilized future is necessary and possible. Humanity must win.

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