To avert climate breakdown, the vast majority of the fossil fuel industry’s gas, oil, and coal reserves need to stay in the ground. Fossil fuel lobbyists have relentless- ly tried for decades to deny science, and delay, weak- en, and sabotage climate action - despite knowing their business heats the planet and destroys communities. Their business model is killing our future. To tackle the climate emergency, and ensure that climate policy is conducted entirely in the public interest, we must cut fossil fuel interests out of our politics, similar to existing restrictions on the tobacco industry.
We need a fossil free politics before it’s too late. This means no more meetings, conflicts of interest, partnerships, or collaborations with fossil fuel lobby- ists in our democratic institutions (including the UN and EU institutions). In concrete terms, this would mean four definitive and courageous measures. Here we explain the third one:
3) End preferential treatment of the fossil fuel industry: no involvement in climate negotiations; no place on government delegations to international negotiations or trade missions; no more subsidies or incentives for the use of fossil fuels or activities that promote or prolong the use of fossil fuels.
This would include but not be limited to:
• Excluding fossil fuel corporations and their representatives from regional, national or EU delegations to international negotia- tions and on trade missions to other countries
• Not giving any public subsidies or other incentives, including favourable tax regimes, for the use of fossil fuels or activities that promote or prolong the use of fossil fuels.