The Green Party of England and Wales has voted in favor of the UK government signing an international treaty to phase out fossil fuels. Party members passed a motion backing a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty (FFNPT) at their spring conference being held online this weekend.

The motion was put forward by a number of senior party members, including lone Green MP Caroline Lucas and former party co-leader Sian Berry. It said: “The world will need to reduce the production of fossil fuels by at least 6% per year between 2020 and 2030 – and complement measures to reduce emissions and demand for fossil fuels with measures to reduce their production and their supply.

Elsewhere, the motion passed by members called on the UK government “to publicly endorse the need for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty (FFNPT); seek international agreement for a treaty to phase out fossil fuel production; and to propose comprehensive national fossil fuel regulations for a quick and fair transition.

Speaking after the motion, Lucas said:

The government is still unabashedly supporting the expansion of fossil fuels in the UK and there are at least 40 new oil, coal and gas projects awaiting approval by 2025. This is completely inconsistent with the need urgent action on the climate emergency – and the bottom line is that fossil fuels must stay in the ground.

The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) paints a devastating picture of the impacts of the climate emergency and on a much larger scale than previously thought. The action window closes quickly. A rapid move away from fossil fuels can block it, but we must end the reckless drive to exploit more oil, gas and coal and accelerate the shift to a future powered by renewables.

The UK government, which remains president of COP26 until November, talks a lot about the need for international cooperation to tackle the climate emergency. Let’s see him demonstrate his own commitment to such cooperation by signing the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty and ending all new fossil fuel production.

The FFNPT takes the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as its model. It is an international agreement designed to end the expansion of nuclear arsenals and establish a verified process for the progressive elimination of nuclear weapons that has been signed by more than 50 members of the United Nations.

This article was published in conjunction with Left Foot Forward.

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Image credit: Bristol Green Party – Creative Commons