Why a Fossil Fuel Phase-Out Is the Only Way to Protect Future Generations

Earlier this year, President Aliyev of Azerbaijan stood up at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin and told ministers, fossil fuels are a “gift from the gods.” Having oil and gas deposits is “not our fault” he went on, laying out further plans to increase natural gas production by more than a third.

But as leader of the host country for the upcoming annual climate talks in November, President Aliyev has an opportunity. He can be bold and make clear that fossil fuels are no longer part of our collective future—and neither should they be a part of our present.

We are standing at the precipice of a rapidly warming world, perilously close to crossing irreversible tipping points. Wildfires blaze across the globe, floods engulf towns and homes, and droughts cause starvation, leaving once fertile land barren.

As U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres has repeatedly said, any new investment in fossil fuels would be “economic and moral madness.”

The U.N.’s Summit of the Future taking place on Sept. 22-23 is about protecting future generations. We must ensure they are safe and secure, instead of vulnerable to climate shocks. 

What does that look like? A total fossil fuel phase out, a renewed commitment by developed countries to deliver climate finance—as well as loss and damage payments—and a green, just transition that puts people and jobs first, especially those in the Global South. 

In Sub-Saharan Africa, we are on the front lines of the crisis every day, through no fault of our own. Polluters must pay. 

Oil corrupts politics, empowers dictators, and erodes democracy, making wars more common. It’s enmeshed in a web of military deals and undermines global cooperation on the shared common threat to all life on earth: climate change. Oil is also one of the world's most volatile commodities, especially now that the renewable market is booming and the price of wind and solar is falling. 

As we have seen, a lack of energy security breeds geopolitical tension—just look at Russia’s war against Ukraine and the chaos that ensued due to the reliance of European countries on Russian natural gas.

Climate-fuelled conflict has triggered greater population displacement, which leads to more demand for food in places where there is already a shortage. So we say this to leaders: stop investing in fossil fuels, stop digging up and burning fossil fuels, and stop forcing fossil fuels back into the ground where we grow the food that sustains us. 

We cannot eat coal. We cannot drink oil.

If we decarbonise the economy, powerful countries will have fewer reasons to send their militaries halfway around the world to secure the flow of oil.

Ministers will be meeting at the U.N. General Assembly in New York City next week, to sign The Pact for the Future, which calls for sustainable development and international peace. This is a pivotal moment to strengthen global cooperation in an increasingly fractured world​—and an important precursor for the outcome of COP29 in Baku.

Last year, at COP28 in Dubai, countries applauded themselves for agreeing to “transition away” from fossil fuels. Since then this conversation has fallen off their radars. 

As COP29 president-designate, Mukhtar Babayev’s recent letter makes clear, we will need "all hands on deck" to effectively advance the event’s two key pillars: raising ambition and enabling action. The technology and finance are largely available, but countries are not moving fast enough.

Last year it was urgent. This year it’s critical—we must be dogged in our determination and demand that our leaders listen. The longer we delay, the worse it will be.