The Human Rights Imperative of Phasing out Fossil Fuels – International Cooperation for Defossilisation | HRC59 Side Event

About this Event

Following ten years of the warmest global average temperatures, 2024 was the warmest year in recorded history. Floods, storms, extreme heat, drought and wildfires kept increasing in frequency and severity across the world, contributing to “the highest number of new displacements recorded for the past 16 years,” as well as worsening food crises and massive economic losses.

There is no scientific doubt that fossil fuels (coal, gas and oil) are the main cause of climate change, and the main driver of other planetary crises – biodiversity loss, toxic pollution, inequalities and mass human rights harm. Several UN mechanisms already identified an international human rights obligation to phase-out fossil fuels and related subsidies. Despite these legal clarifications and the recognition of the need for a fossil fuel phase out in the international climate change regime and the Pact for the Future, fossil fuel extraction and use are projected to increase.[2]Securing a liveable and sustainable future for humanity is still possible, if we focus on the most effective climate action within this decade.

The Special Rapporteur on climate change and human rights, Prof. Elisa Morgera, has dedicated her report to the 59^th Human Rights Council session to the topic of fossil fuel-based economy and its impact on human rights. In this context, she will be presenting her report entitled “The imperative of defossilising our economies” during her interactive dialogue.  In this report, she clarifies States’ international human rights obligations, and businesses’ international human rights responsibilities, based on best available science, to phase out fossil fuels and related subsidies within this decade. This report also highlights that the overwhelming evidence of the inter-linked, inter-generational, severe and widespread, global and local human rights impacts of the fossil fuel life-cycle, coupled with six decades of obstruction against effective climate action, compels defossilising our whole economies urgently, as part of a just transition that is effective, human rights-based and transformative.

In her report, the Special Rapporteur proposes defossilisation as an integrated approach to climate action at the nexus with nature, water and food that provides the single most impactful contribution to the protection of human health. In addition, she stresses that defossilisation is necessary to truly open up a just, human rights-based transition to renewable energy.

Speakers

By order of intervention.

H.E. Amb. Doreen DEBRUM

Permanent Representative of the Republic of the Marshall Islands to the UN

Phenny

Founder of EGABI and climate change advocate

Prof. Elisa MORGERA

UN Special Rapporteur on climate change and human rights

Miguel RUIZ BOTERO

Second Secretary, Permanent Mission of Colombia to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva

Ivetta GERASIMCHUK

Director, Energy Program, International Strategy, IISD

Andrea CARMEN

Executive Director, International Indian Treaty Council

Diana RIZZOLIO

Coordinator, Geneva Environment Network | Moderator

Highlights

Video

Summary

Panel Discussion

H.E. Amb. Doreen DEBRUM | Permanent Representative of the Republic of the Marshall Islands to the UN

• The “Imperative of Defossilizing our Economies” report tells hard truths we all need to hear, especially alarming for countries like the Marshall Islands that have contributed little to climate change but rely on others to transition away from fossil fuels.
• Making commitments is easy, but following through is much harder.
• Even after agreeing under the UNFCCC to transition away from fossil fuels, many countries continue to extract and use more than ever before.
• Existing fossil fuel infrastructure alone would already generate more emissions than the 1.5°C pathway can tolerate.
• Despite this, new infrastructure — wells, mines, power plants, and export facilities — continues to be built.
• The Marshall Islands fully supports the report’s findings that all states must immediately develop and implement defossilization plans and measures.
• My country remains committed to the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, and we were proud to help design this first-of-its-kind framework that created a lifeline for vulnerable states.
• We are undeniably frustrated with the speed of progress; we are not doing enough.
• All parties must follow through on their commitments, submit updated NDCs aligned with human rights principles, and urgently transition away from fossil fuels.
• We are pleased to join other climate leaders in the Pacific and Colombia in exploring the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.
• We are proud members of the coalition working to phase out fossil fuel subsidies.
• The world subsidizes the fossil fuel industry by $400 billion per year, while we struggle to mobilize basic climate finance; removing these subsidies alone would cut global emissions by 10%.
• We are also actively engaged in global climate leadership through international legal proceedings (ICJ, ITLOS, Inter-American Court of Human Rights) that are clarifying states’ obligations.
• These legal deliberations should encourage states to accelerate the transition, and also inspire the private sector to rethink its investments.
• Collectively, we must ensure companies and corporations shift away from fossil fuels.
• The report provides the answers we need. Let us work together to ensure its call is heard and acted upon ahead of the next COP in Belém.

Phenny | Founder of EGABI and climate change advocate

• Human beings cut trees, make paper, and still write “do not cut” on that same paper. 
• As the world stands at the brink of irreversible climate change, the inclusion of girls and young women in defossilization efforts is urgent and necessary. 
• Fossil fuel economies are deeply linked to human rights violations for girls and young women — leading to food insecurity, displacement, and denial of education, health, and safety. 
• Girls and young women in communities feel excluded from policy spaces; no one asks how the transition affects them. They want their voices heard and counted. 
• They lack sufficient information on a just energy transition, as this is not included in education curricula. The information gap must be bridged with simple, accessible language, especially at the grassroots level. 
• Girls and young women are excluded from resources tied to defossilization. While firewood and paraffin are being phased out, they cannot afford alternatives like solar energy, despite living in sun-rich lands. 
• Technical terms like carbon credit trading mean little to them; what they experience is land loss and deepening poverty as corporations seize ancestral land. 
• With only 4% of land in Kenya owned by women, the transition offers uncertainty, not opportunity. 
• This is not a plea for charity — it is a demand for justice. The energy transition must be a just transition that redistributes power, land, and opportunity, values local language and knowledge, and protects the right to a future. 
• Girls and young women in Africa are not passive bystanders to climate change; they are witnesses, survivors, and ready to lead. 
• To lead, they must be seen, heard, and equipped. Anything less is betrayal disguised as progress. 
• Policies must not be passed without their participation. The sunlight that powers Africa must also power inclusion. 
• Girls and young women are insisting on being part of the transition from the beginning, not at the end. 

Elisa MORGERA | UN Special Rapporteur on climate change and human rights

• Preparing the report revealed many hard truths, which are preventing the fulfillment of the right to self-determination. 
• Domestic action and international cooperation must work together to create a new economic model free from fossil fuels and aligned with a safe climate. 
• Historically and currently high-emitting states must lead on defossilization through participatory and inclusive processes. 
• Obligations to phase out fossil fuels and related financing are already clear under international human rights law; the process must be grounded in a human rights–based approach. 
• Human rights are both a legal guide and a source of transformative practices that enable inclusive, meaningful conversations about reimagining economic systems. 
• International cooperation must prioritize funding, capacity building, and technology co-development, especially for states with fewer capabilities and responsibilities. 
• Defossilization processes must include those most affected by climate change and by fossil fuel phase-out, both at the domestic and international levels. 
• Research funding for Global North–Global South cooperation on renewable pathways is scarce, while significant public and private funding flows to less effective areas of climate action. 
• Some international cooperation dynamics risk locking Global South countries into fossil fuel production and use, or shifting fossil fuel–based activities onto them. 
• States must ensure that technological, financial, and cooperative measures do not undermine defossilization progress. 
• Combating disinformation is essential for meaningful progress and must be part of international cooperation. 
• International climate negotiations have failed to prioritize phasing out fossil fuels; this must change as a matter of science-based urgency. 
• Ongoing UN negotiations on plastics present an opportunity to address fossil fuel industry expansion beyond the energy sector. 
• Tax cooperation negotiations are vital to stop illicit financial flows and fossil fuel subsidies, which deprive vulnerable countries of needed climate finance. 
• International investment law must be reformed, as fossil fuel companies exploit investor protections to block national defossilization measures and impose exorbitant fines. 
• Foreign investment should align with renewable transitions, not undermine them. 
• The report issues a deep call to all fossil fuel–producing and financing states to take immediate, systemic action domestically and internationally, at both bilateral and multilateral levels, to ensure impact within this decade.

Miguel RUIZ BOTERO | Second Secretary, Permanent Mission of Colombia to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva

• Phasing out fossil fuels is imperative not only for climate change but also for poverty reduction and protection of vulnerable people. 
• Climate change, primarily caused by fossil fuels, is an existential threat — affecting the most vulnerable first, but ultimately humanity as a whole and future generations. 
• The crisis also drives biodiversity loss, pollution, human mobility, and conflicts, with these negative impacts set to intensify. 
• Wide-ranging implications require diverse responses . 
• In the UNFCCC, Colombia has repeatedly introduced language on transitioning away from fossil fuels, though it has not yet been included in outcomes. 
• Colombia also champions this issue in CBD and chemicals and waste negotiations, and has joined the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty initiative to send a clear human rights–based message. 
• Three priority areas: 
  • Science: The recent creation of the ISPCWP (intergovenrmental science-policy panel on chemicals, waste, and pollution) is a milestone that complements the IPCC and IPBES, helping to close the loop on the triple planetary crisis. Reliable science is vital to fight disinformation and false narratives. 
  • Efficient transition: Regulation must ensure sustainable pathways. Transitions from fossil fuels to unsustainable alternatives (e.g., single-use plastics or unnecessary pesticides) are harmful to human rights, health, and the environment. 
  • Human rights: The triple planetary crisis is the defining human rights challenge of our time, especially for developing countries. Colombia advanced the first resolution on human rights and biodiversity, linking biodiversity, climate change, and nature-based solutions. It continues to advocate for fossil fuel phase-out language and 1.5°C-consistent pathways in climate and human rights resolutions. 
• Multilateral diplomacy is slow, but time is short; we must be creative and ambitious in advancing the transition away from fossil fuels as quickly as possible. 
• The goal is to agree on pathways that protect human rights and deliver on 1.5°C commitments. 

Ivetta GERASIMCHUK | Director, Energy Program, International Strategy, IISD

• This report is very timely and provides important momentum for action.
• IISD has worked on phasing out fossil fuels for many years, particularly on fossil fuel subsidies; its Global Subsidies Initiative marks its 20th anniversary this year.
• The report offers ammunition to bridge the gap between climate science, sustainable development needs, and current reality.
• There is no room for new coal and gas expansion under a 1.5°C pathway; even if 1.5°C is missed, every fraction of a degree matters.
• Fossil fuel demand is projected to peak by 2030, but governments and businesses continue to plan expansion.
• The Production Gap Report shows plans to produce twice the fossil fuels compatible with 1.5°C — a major risk for a just, fair, and equitable transition.
• Financial flows remain misaligned: both private and public finance continue supporting fossil fuels.
• Even conservative estimates put fossil fuel subsidies at $1.5 trillion per year; this money could support sustainable development, just transition, and clean energy.
• Multiple international commitments have been made to reform fossil fuel subsidies (G7, G20, UNFCCC, WTO initiatives, “Friends of Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform”), but none are legally binding.
• A precedent exists: the Agreement on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainability (Switzerland, Costa Rica, New Zealand, Iceland) includes legally binding fossil fuel subsidy reform, though still pending ratification.
• Current global progress is closer to a “standstill on expansion” rather than a true phase-out, leaving loopholes for fossil fuel interests to exploit.
• Despite resistance, the transition is inevitable due to the rise of renewables and the worsening risks of climate change.
• The real question is not if but when the transition occurs — and the Special Rapporteur’s report makes clear that “when” must be now.

Andrea CARMEN | Executive Director, International Indian Treaty Council

• Dedicated her remarks to Ken Saro-Wiwa of the Ogoni people, executed for resisting Shell Oil’s human rights violations and environmental destruction — one of the first Indigenous human rights defenders killed for opposing fossil fuels.
• Highlighted Indigenous science as prophetic and time-tested; cited Roberta Blackgoat (Navajo elder) who said: “Coal is the liver of Mother Earth — it must stay in her body to keep her healthy.” This reflects the Indigenous worldview of Earth as a living being.
• The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) recognizes rights to traditional lands, territories, and resources, but these rights — especially free, prior, and informed consent — are widely violated.
• Example: Lakota opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline under the Missouri River, which provides water for millions. Despite resistance, the pipeline was built and has already leaked.
• The climate crisis threatens over one million species, many vital to Indigenous survival, food systems, culture, and identity (e.g., Chinook salmon in California predicted to go extinct by century’s end).
• COP28 outcomes shifted language from “fossil fuel reduction” to “emissions reduction,” focusing on carbon capture — a change Indigenous peoples view critically.
• Despite commitments, U.S. oil production hit record highs in 2022, 2023, and 2024. In 2025, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge lands sacred to the Gwich’in were opened for oil and gas development.
• In Canada, despite treaty rights and chiefs calling for a moratorium in 2008, tar sands expansion continues, causing pollution, fish kills, and cancer clusters.
• Brazil recently announced oil and gas auctions, including offshore and Amazon areas, risking massive new emissions.
• So-called “just transition” policies around transition minerals (e.g., lithium mining) are not alternatives but additions to fossil fuel extraction, further threatening Indigenous territories.
• UN treaty bodies, including the Human Rights Committee, have recognized extractive industries as violations of Indigenous treaty and human rights.
• Concluded with an image from Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, showing Indigenous children outside a tar sands refinery; the call is clear: keep fossil fuels in the ground.

Open Discussion

Elisa Morgera 

• “Coal is the liver of Mother Earth.”
• Western science is only now recognizing the importance of Indigenous science for planetary health.
• Next report to the UN General Assembly will focus on critical minerals. Two key issues:
  • Questioning energy demand projections that drive harmful extraction of critical minerals, replicating fossil fuel–related human rights violations.
  • Recognizing links between fossil fuel use and critical minerals; these hard truths must guide inclusive, evidence-based defossilization.

Q from youth advocate: How can human rights defenders, especially young women, be protected from retaliation and violence in authoritarian contexts?

Phenny

• Emphasized the need for strong reporting and protection mechanisms at national, regional, and global levels.
• Key question: Am I safe when I demonstrate for my community and environment?
• Advocates must feel safe, have access to justice, and be heard.

Elisa Morgera

• The more fossil fuel expansion and financing are exposed, the greater the risks and attacks on defenders.
• Documented “playbook” of fossil fuel companies shows systematic strategies to attack defenders.
• Need stronger preventive measures, not just responses, and better coordination across initiatives to protect defenders.

Andrea Carmen

• Fully supported Elisa’s points on safeguards and prevention.
• Raised the issue of environmental violence tied to extractives, especially fossil fuels.
• Highlighted UN CEDAW’s 2022 General Recommendation 39 on indigenous women and girls, which recognized environmental violence.
• Linked fossil fuel and mining projects to violence, exploitation, and trafficking of indigenous women and girls, particularly near “man camps” around oil fields.
• Warned that transition minerals could replicate the same harms.

Q from Mal Kimoka (Girls’ Rights Network, regional coordinator): What advice do you have for African girls and young women to prepare to present their positions at COP? Which platforms or reports should they use?

Elisa Morgera

• For COP30 (Brazil), the presidency is introducing innovations, but it is still unclear what spaces will be available for youth and women.
• Three recommendations:
• Build solidarity with long-standing civil society constituencies to gain insider knowledge and protection strategies.
• Recognize that COP spaces are shrinking and unsafe; also engage in other fora (e.g., plastics treaty negotiations, tax convention, high seas treaty) where climate root causes are addressed.
• Push the Brazilian presidency to ensure meaningful and safe spaces for young women and African voices.

Documents

• Presentations made during the event

Links

• Environment @ 59th Session of the UN Human Rights Council