United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights Elisa Morgera on Monday presented a new report to the General Assembly calling for the criminalization of spreading disinformation regarding the climate crisis, as well as a complete ban on fossil fuel lobbying and advertising by the industry.

In The imperative of defossilizing our economies report, Morgera argues that the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and other rich fossil fuel countries are legally bound by international law to phase out gas, oil and coal by the end of the decade, in addition to compensating communities for the harms caused.

1/ TODAY – UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and climate change Elisa Morgera presented a historic report to the Human Rights Council: The Imperative of Defossilizing Our Economies: bit.ly/3Gl0xuG

CIEL welcomes this urgent call to end #FossilFuels.

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“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 violations. Several United Nations mechanisms have already identified an international human rights obligation to phase out fossil fuels and related subsidies,” the report says.

Morgera, a global environmental law professor at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, argues that fossil fuel exploration, investments and subsidies should all be banned, along with gas flaring, fracking, oil sands and “false tech solutions.”

A protest against “clean coal” outside the Victorian Parliament House in Melbourne, Australia on Dec. 10, 2013. John Englart / Flickr

“Despite overwhelming evidence of the interlinked, intergenerational, severe and widespread human rights impacts of the fossil fuel life cycle… these countries have and are still accruing enormous profits from fossil fuels, and are still not taking decisive action,” Morgera said, as The Guardian reported.

Indigenous Peoples, island nations and other vulnerable communities are facing the most serious and compounding harms from the extraction and use of fossil fuels and the climate crisis, while benefiting the least.

The report highlights overwhelming evidence of the far-reaching, cumulative damage wrought by big oil and fossil fuel byproducts like plastics and fertilizers on nearly all human rights, including the right to life, health, food, water, housing, education, livelihoods, information and self-determination.

“Despite these legal clarifications, and the recognition of the need for a fossil fuel phaseout in the international climate change regime and the Pact for the Future, fossil fuel extraction and use are projected to increase. This is despite the significant progress made in decarbonizing the energy sector: in 2023, renewables provided 30 per cent of global electricity supply, and scientific evidence points to the feasibility of a 100 per cent global reliance on renewable energy, including leapfrogging opportunities for developing countries and for workers,” the report says.

Morgera says the “defossilization” of entire economies is necessary to address the universal and escalating harms caused by fossil fuels in all sectors, including finance, food, tech, politics and media.

Morgera said international human rights law requires nations to inform citizens of the harm fossil fuels cause, and that the best way to tackle the climate crisis is to phase them out.

People are also entitled to know that the fossil fuel industry, its partners and supporters have been obstructing the knowledge of its culpability for six decades by disseminating falsehoods while interfering with meaningful climate action by attacking activists and climate scientists and taking over democratic gatherings like the UN climate conventions.

“Extensive research has documented the fossil fuel sector’s evolving strategies to keep the public uninformed about the severity of climate change and about the role of fossil fuels in causing it (‘the playbook’). This has undermined the protection of all human rights that are negatively impacted by climate change for over six decades,” the report said.

Morgera said lobbying and fossil fuel advertising must be banned, greenwashing must be criminalized and penalties for attacking climate advocates must be enforced.

Threats of drought, desertification, sea-level rise, flooding and other impacts related to the climate crisis are increasingly impacting communities around the world. This is in addition to water scarcity, air pollution, forced displacement of Indigenous Peoples and biodiversity loss.

At the same time, the fossil fuel industry and petrochemical companies have seen huge profits while benefiting from tax avoidance schemes, taxpayer subsidies and receiving undue protection by way of international investment law while refusing to address economic inequalities and reduce energy poverty.

According to the report, oil and gas companies in 2023 earned $2.4 trillion in profits worldwide and coal companies made $2.5 trillion.

Getting rid of fossil fuel subsidies alone would lower emissions by as much as 10 percent by 2030.

Morgera said land that has been unjustly appropriated for use by fossil fuel companies should be remediated, cleaned up and returned to its rightful owners if they so desire, or they should receive fair compensation.

“Indigenous Peoples, people of African descent and peasants have faced evictions and displacement without adequate compensation, violence, and legal intimidation, with access restrictions and environmental degradation of their territories by fossil fuel operations, terminating alternative livelihoods, for instance in adjacent grazing areas. Decommissioning and site reclamation (dismantling and removing fossil-fuel extraction, processing and storage infrastructure) can leave residual pollutants in the soil and water, hindering the restoration of ecosystems, agricultural productivity and water safety for human consumption for generations,” Morgera said in the report.

The report presents the human rights argument for decisive political action to reduce the devastating impacts of the climate crisis, reported The Guardian. Morgera’s recommendations prioritize people’s basic rights over the benefits and profits reaped by a small minority of the world’s population.

“Paradoxically what may seem radical or unrealistic – a transition to a renewable energy-based economy – is now cheaper and safer for our economics and a healthier option for our societies,” Morgera told The Guardian. “The transition can also lead to significant savings of taxpayers’ money that is currently going into responding to climate change impacts, saving health costs, and also recouping lost tax revenue from fossil fuel companies. This could be the single most impactful health contribution we could ever make. The transition seems radical and unrealistic because fossil fuel companies have been so good at making it seem so.”

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