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Global Policy

Governments must intervene to stop the expansion of oil and gas production to preserve a safe climate for all. We’re pushing them to move from words to action by adopting policies to immediately end new oil and gas production and to plan a just and equitable phaseout of fossil fuel production, with rich countries moving first and fastest.

Full, fast, fair, and funded

In order to preserve a liveable climate, governments and other decision makers must immediately end the expansion of fossil fuel production and support a just and equitable phaseout of all fossil fuels.

In an unprecedented moment at the UN climate talks in 2023, governments came to an agreement for the first time to “transition away from fossil fuels” – in large part thanks to decades long climate justice movement efforts to fight fossil fuels and secure a livable and equitable future for all. But, for the most part, governments, in particular in the Global North, have yet to heed the science and the voices of people on the frontlines of the climate crisis and take the first basic step: put an end to new fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure in a just and equitable manner.

Through advocacy, research, and communication, we’re working to end fossil fuel expansion and to hold governments accountable to implementing their commitment to phase out fossil fuels and make a full, fast, fair, and funded transition to renewable energy a reality through their domestic and international policies.

Making a fast and fair fossil fuel phaseout promises a reality at the global level

At COP28 in Dubai, countries for the first time recognized the need to end the fossil fuel era  – and we’re going to hold them to their commitment. Through advocacy, research, and communications, we’ll be pushing rich governments at multilateral and regional bodies to create the policy conditions for a full, fast, fair, and funded phaseout of all fossil fuels, as a first step to making the ambitious promises from COP28 a reality. 

Securing policies to end fossil fuel expansion at the national level

Every new drop of oil and gas extracted anywhere in the world jeopardizes a safe climate for all – yet a small group of countries is still moving full speed ahead with more plans for expansion. But, there is momentum to end oil and gas expansion, with a group of first mover countries like the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance, who have committed to end new concessions, licensing or leasing rounds. We’ll be working to grow this group of first movers, and build diplomatic and public pressure against rich global north countries responsible for the majority of new expansion plans to instead reflect their outsized responsibility for the climate crisis by immediately ending fossil fuel expansion and planning for the fastest phaseouts of production.

Key Stats

  • 51 %

    Planet Wreckers

    Just five rich countries are responsible for the majority (51%) of planned oil and gas expansion from now to 2050: the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Norway

  • 1/ 3

    Planet Wrecker-in-Chief

    The United States, already by far the largest oil and gas producer in the world, is poised to be the world’s largest expander of oil and gas extraction from 2023 to 2050, single handedly representing more than one third of planned global expansion

  • 142

    Countries want a full fossil fuel phaseout

    At the UN climate talks in 2023, 142 countries called for or endorsed a decision to phase out fossil fuels

More details about our campaigns

Heeding the call from the UN Secretary General to end new oil and gas licensing, governments must stop approving new extraction projects, end domestic and international public finance for fossil fuels, regulate activities of financial actors and fossil fuel companies, and phase out fossil fuels at a pace consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C – with rich countries moving first and fastest. Governments in all countries must shift domestic and international subsidies to support transformative solutions like distributed renewable energy to reach universal energy access, energy efficiency, and worker and community-led just transition plans in the most fossil fuel dependent regions.

For the first time, all governments have a collective responsibility to transition away from fossil fuels. For countries to live up to the agreement made at COP28, they need to immediately end fossil fuel expansion, and make plans for a fast, full, fair, and funded phaseout of all fossil fuels. Ahead of COP30 in 2025, governments will be drafting updated Nationally Determined Contributions – a roadmap for each country’s transition away from fossil fuels – that must also reflect rich countries’ outsized responsibility to move first and fastest in phasing out fossil fuels, and paying their fair share to fund a just transition to renewable energy in the global south. 

At the UN climate talks in 2021, Denmark and Costa Rica announced the launch of a coalition of countries and sub-national governments working to facilitate the managed phaseout of oil and gas production, the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance (BOGA), with full members “committing to end new concessions, licensing or leasing rounds, and to set a Paris-aligned date for ending oil and gas production.” At COP28 in 2023, BOGA member Québec joined Denmark and Costa Rica as Co-Chairs of the alliance, with a special focus on sub-national governments, as decision making over natural resources often is a state or province’s jurisdiction. Québec’s Environment Minister Benoit Charette strongly emphasized that fossil fuel phaseout is the real goal, and said, “The Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stone, just as the fossil era will not end because we’ve run out of fossils. It will only end if we make political decisions to make it happen.”

Independently, in 2022, Colombia announced the government’s commitment to not grant any new licenses for oil and gas exploration, and followed by also joining BOGA in 2023. Colombia is the largest fossil fuel producer to date to adopt such policies, despite a high level of economic dependence on fossil fuel revenues.

Latest Global Policy Publications

Walk The Talk: Time for the G7 to make the COP28 Fossil Fuel Pledge a Reality

This briefing from Oil Change International shows that G7 countries, which have both the capacity and the responsibility to be leaders in phasing out fossil fuels, are not walking the walk – at home or abroad: some G7 countries are massively expanding fossil fuel production at home, while others are investing in more fossil fuel infrastructure abroad. Both are catastrophic failures of leadership, which the G7 has a responsibility to correct.

Planet Wreckers: How Countries’ Oil and Gas Extraction Plans Risk Locking in Climate Chaos

Oil Change International research shows that only 20 countries, led overwhelmingly by the United States, are responsible for nearly 90 percent of the carbon-dioxide (CO2) pollution threatened by new oil and gas fields and fracking wells planned between 2023 and 2050. If this oil and gas expansion is allowed to proceed, it would lock in climate chaos and an unlivable future.

Stop the Planet Wreckers

The United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Norway are planning to unleash as much CO2 pollution through their planned new oil and gas production as the lifetime emissions of over 620 new coal plants. If these 5 Planet Wreckers were to heed the United Nations Secretary General's call to halt new oil and gas, we could prevent a staggering 100 billion tonnes of carbon pollution from entering our atmosphere.

The climate crisis is, at its core, a crisis of injustice. Don't let the worst offenders pretend to be the biggest climate leaders.

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