Rich countries must practice what they preach on fossil fuel phaseout

Reclaim Finance asserts that the 'transitioning away from fossil fuels' agreement at COP28 must be backed by concrete action from rich countries. It calls for the EU, US, Canada, Norway, the UK, and Australia to end domestic oil and gas production, stop their financial institutions from enabling global fossil fuel expansion, and provide concessional finance for just coal retirements and renewable energy deployment in the Global South.

• While the final COP28 declaration did not include the phrase 'fossil fuel phaseout' due to opposition led by Saudi Arabia, all countries agreed to 'transitioning away from fossil fuels in our energy systems, beginning in this decade, in a just, orderly and equitable manner.'
• Wealthy nations that pushed for phaseout language—specifically the EU, US, Canada, Norway, the UK, and Australia—are urged to end new oil and gas production on their own soil and seabeds and to stop their financial institutions from supporting new fossil projects globally.
• The US is encouraged to accelerate the retirement of its coal fleet, which is the third largest globally, and to stop permitting new LNG terminals and providing diplomatic or financial support for LNG.
• Transitioning away from fossil fuels requires tens of billions of dollars in concessional and affordable funding for the just closure of infrastructure, particularly coal plants and mines. Recent COP developments include a GFANZ report on coal retirement mechanisms (CRMs) in the Asia Pacific, a resource mobilization plan for Vietnam's Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), and the launch of the Coal Transition Accelerator (CTA) by France.
• The document argues that public sector 'blended finance' mechanisms used to derisk private investment in the Global South should be conditional; financial institutions benefiting from such public support must immediately stop financing fossil fuel expansion.

APA

Martin, L. (2023). Rich countries must practice what they preach on fossil fuel phaseout. Reclaim Finance. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2023/12/19/rich-countries-must-practice-what-they-preach-on-fossil-fuel-phaseout/

Chicago

Martin, Léo. Rich countries must practice what they preach on fossil fuel phaseout. Reclaim Finance, 2023. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2023/12/19/rich-countries-must-practice-what-they-preach-on-fossil-fuel-phaseout/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Martin |first1=Léo |title=Rich countries must practice what they preach on fossil fuel phaseout |publisher=Reclaim Finance |date=19 December 2023 |url=https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2023/12/19/rich-countries-must-practice-what-they-preach-on-fossil-fuel-phaseout/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{martin2023rich, author = {Martin, Léo}, title = {{Rich countries must practice what they preach on fossil fuel phaseout}}, publisher = {Reclaim Finance}, year = {2023}, month = dec, url = {https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/2023/12/19/rich-countries-must-practice-what-they-preach-on-fossil-fuel-phaseout/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }