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jody williams
101 Nobel Laureates Urge World Leaders to 'Keep Fossil Fuels in the Ground'
"Fossil fuels are the greatest contributor to climate change. Allowing the continued expansion of this industry is unconscionable."
Apr 21, 2021
On the eve of Earth Day and the start of U.S. President Joe Biden's Leaders Summit on Climate, a group of 101 Nobel laureates published a letter urging world leaders and governments to "keep fossil fuels in the ground" as a critical first step toward addressing the climate emergency.
"Urgent action is needed to end the expansions of fossil fuel production, phase out current production, and invest in renewable energy."
--Nobel laureates' letter
The letter--which was signed by Nobel peace, literature, medicine, physics, chemistry, and economic sciences laureates--notes that the climate emergency "is threatening hundreds of millions of lives, livelihoods across every continent, and is putting thousands of species at risk." It adds that "the burning of fossil fuels--coal, oil, and gas--is by far the major contributor" to the crisis.
Signers of the letter--who include Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, the Dalai Lama, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Jody Williams, and Muhammad Yunus--said that "urgent action is needed to end the expansions of fossil fuel production, phase out current production, and invest in renewable energy."
\u201cHis Holiness the @DalaiLama and 100 other Nobel Laureates have just delivered our open letter to world leaders at the #LeadersClimateSummit with these 3 demands:\n\n1\ufe0f\u20e3 No new coal, oil & gas\n2\ufe0f\u20e3 Phase out existing production\n3\ufe0f\u20e3 Support a global #JustTransition to clean energy\u201d— Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative (@Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative) 1618987836
The letter continues:
The burning of fossil fuels is responsible for almost 80% of carbon dioxide emissions since the industrial revolution. In addition to being the leading source of emissions, there are local pollution, environmental, and health costs associated with extracting, refining, transporting, and burning fossil fuels.
These costs are often paid by Indigenous peoples and marginalized communities. Egregious industry practices have led to human rights violations and a fossil fuel system that has left billions of people across the globe without sufficient energy to lead lives of dignity.
For both people and the planet, continued support must be given to tackling climate change through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Paris agreement. Failure to meet the Paris agreement's temperature limit of 1.5degC risks pushing the world towards catastrophic global warming. Yet, the Paris agreement has no mention of oil, gas, or coal.
Meanwhile, the fossil fuel industry continues to plan new projects. Banks continue to fund new projects. According to the most recent United Nations Environment Program report, 120% more coal, oil, and gas will be produced by 2030 than is consistent with limiting warming to 1.5degC. Efforts to meet the Paris agreement and to reduce demand for fossil fuels will be undermined if supply continues to grow.
The signatories urge world leaders to do the following "in a spirit of international cooperation":
- End new expansion of oil, gas, and coal production in line with the best available science as outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and United Nations Environment Program;
- Phase out existing production of oil, gas, and coal in a manner that is fair and equitable, taking into account the responsibilities of countries for climate change and their respective dependency on fossil fuels, and capacity to transition; and
- Invest in a transformational plan to ensure 100% access to renewable energy globally, support dependent economies to diversify away from fossil fuels, and enable people and communities across the globe to flourish through a global just transition.
"Fossil fuels are the greatest contributor to climate change," the letter concludes. "Allowing the continued expansion of this industry is unconscionable. The fossil fuel system is global and requires a global solution--a solution the Leaders Climate Summit must work towards. And the first step is to keep fossil fuels in the ground."
The Nobel laureates' letter comes two days after United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that humanity stands "on the verge of the abyss" as the climate crisis pushes the world "dangerously close" to hitting the 1.5degC target limit of warming.
\u201cState of the Global Climate in 2020:\nOne of the three warmest years on record\n2015-2020 were six warmest years on record\nEvery decade since the 1980s has been the warmest on record\nBut temperatures are only one aspect of #climatechange \n\u27a1\ufe0fhttps://t.co/ogVsnYfPZn\n#EarthDay\u201d— World Meteorological Organization (@World Meteorological Organization) 1618847451
Guterres said that the world is "way off track" of the goal of reducing by 2030 global greenhouse gas emissions by 45% from 2010 levels and reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, which scientists say is necessary to avert the worst impacts of the climate emergency.
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Nobel Laureate Warns of 'Devastating Marriage' Between Artificial Intelligence and Killer Robots
"The biggest threats are the 'modernization' of nuclear weapons and the new 'revolution' of weapons," says Peace Prize winner Jody Williams.
Apr 16, 2021
Peace activist and Nobel laureate Jody Williams is continuing to sound alarm about so-called killer robots, saying in a recent interview that they represent a frightening marriage between "artificial intelligence and weapons of war."
Williams, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her work with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and currently chairs the Nobel Women's Initiative, made the remark in an interview published last month with the Germany-based Faces of Peace Initiative.
"We do not need fully autonomous weapons that on their own can target and kill human beings," said Williams. "We need to use our resources so that the needs of people are met, not the needs of arms producers."
Asked about the biggest threats to peace this year, Williams criticized the never-ending pursuit of more modern weaponry.
"To my mind," said Williams, "the global obsession with weapons and violence while at the same time painting people who believe that peace is possible as intellectual 'light weights' who don't understand the harsh reality of the world are the two sides of the double-edged sword that keeps the world believing that only more weapons will keep us safe."
"The biggest threats are the 'modernization' of nuclear weapons and the new 'revolution' of weapons--killer robots," she said. "The weapons are fully autonomous and can target and kill human beings on their own. A devastating 'marriage' of artificial intelligence and weapons of war!"
Williams also lamented that landmines continue to claim lives--over 5,000 in 2019 according to the most recent Land Mine Monitor. That's despite the fact that the Mine Ban Treaty has 164 state parties, which represents roughly 80% of the world's countries.
Williams' home country of the United States is not a signatory to the global treaty, though she expressed some optimism for the Biden administration doing better than its immediate predecessor.
While making no prediction about what President Joe Biden would do regarding the treaty, Williams said in the interview that it's "very likely he will roll back [former President Donald] Trump's policy and align his administration's policy with that of the Obama administration, which brought the U.S. very close to compliance with the treaty even if it was not signed."
Since the interview was released, however, the Biden administration indicated it would not roll back Trump's policy, declaring landmines a still "vital tool" in the U.S. military's arsenal.
Speaking about the issue in an April 8 interview with Democracy Now!, Williams said the Biden administration's decision to simply "review the policy"--as opposed to swiftly repealing it--was "mind-boggling" given the "multitudinous reviews under various presidents."
"Landmines were invented, if you will, in order to maim people," she said.
"It is an indiscriminate weapon that has no place on this planet and no place in the ground, in riverbanks where women go and wash clothes, areas where kids play," said Williams. "The fact that President Biden had said he would immediately turn back Mr. Trump's confused policy and is now having another review is very disturbing."
"How many more reviews does one need to do to know that those weapons have no place on this planet?"
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'We Need a People's Vaccine': Ex-World Leaders, Nobel Laureates Urge Biden to Back WTO Waiver
"Supporting the emergency waiver of Covid-19-related intellectual property rules will give people around the globe a chance to wake up to a world free from the virus."
Apr 14, 2021
Calling on U.S. President Joe Biden to prioritize human need over corporate greed, more than 170 Nobel laureates and former heads of state and government on Wednesday sent an open letter urging him to back a waiver of intellectual property rules so that developing nations can ramp up coronavirus vaccine production and pursue a people's vaccine to help end a pandemic that has now claimed nearly three million lives.
"We will not end today's global pandemic until rich countries--most especially the United States--stop blocking the ability of countries around the world to mass produce safe and effective vaccines."
--Francoise Barre-Sinoussi,
Nobel laureate
Signers of the People's Vaccine Alliance letter--who include former Irish President Mary Robinson, former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev, as well as Nobel laureates including Joseph Stiglitz, Mairead Maguire, and Jody Williams--say they are "gravely concerned by the very slow progress in scaling up global Covid-19 vaccine access and inoculation in low- and middle-income countries."
"The world saw unprecedented development of safe and effective vaccines, in major part thanks to U.S. public investment," the letter states. "We all welcome that vaccination rollout in the U.S. and many wealthier countries is bringing hope to their citizens. Yet for the majority of the world that same hope is yet to be seen. New waves of suffering are now rising across the globe. Our global economy cannot rebuild if it remains vulnerable to this virus."
The letter continues:
But we are encouraged by news that your administration is considering a temporary waiver of World Trade Organization (WTO) intellectual property rules during the Covid-19 pandemic, as proposed by South Africa and India, and supported by more than 100 WTO member states and numerous health experts worldwide. A WTO waiver is a vital and necessary step to bringing an end to this pandemic. It must be combined with ensuring vaccine know-how and technology is shared openly.
This can be achieved through the World Health Organization Covid-19 Technology Access Pool, as your chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has called for. This will save lives and advance us towards global herd immunity. These actions would expand global manufacturing capacity, unhindered by industry monopolies that are driving the dire supply shortages blocking vaccine access.
Nine in 10 people in most poor countries may well go without a vaccine this year. At this pace, many nations will be left waiting until at least 2024 to achieve mass Covid-19 immunization, despite what the limited, while welcome, COVAX initiative is able to offer.
"With your leadership, we can ensure Covid-19 vaccine technology is shared with the world," the letter to Biden concludes. "Supporting the emergency waiver of Covid-19-related intellectual property rules will give people around the globe a chance to wake up to a world free from the virus. We need a people's vaccine."
\u201cThis is a huge moment in the fight for a #PeoplesVaccine and ending this pandemic.\n \n170+ former heads of state and government and Nobel laureates call upon @JoeBiden to urgently back #TRIPSWaiver @WTO.\n \n"Please take the urgent action that only you can" https://t.co/YzS3ocBS09\u201d— Global Trade Watch (@Global Trade Watch) 1618434523
Letter signatory Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for co-discovering the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), said in a statement that "we will not end today's global pandemic until rich countries--most especially the United States--stop blocking the ability of countries around the world to mass produce safe and effective vaccines."
"Big pharmaceutical companies are setting the terms of the end of today's pandemic--and the cost of allowing senseless monopolies is only more death and more people being pushed into poverty."
--Muhammad Yunus,
Nobel laureate
"Global health is on the line," she added. "History is watching. I, with my fellow laureates and scientists across the globe, urge President Biden to do the right thing and to support the TRIPS waiver, insist on pharmaceutical corporations to share vaccine technologies with the world, and strategically invest in distributed production."
Muhammad Yunus, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for establishing the micro-lending Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, said that "big pharmaceutical companies are setting the terms of the end of today's pandemic--and the cost of allowing senseless monopolies is only more death and more people being pushed into poverty."
"Only government action--not philanthropy, and not the private sector--can solve today's unprecedented crisis," added Yunus. "We together urge President Biden to stand on the right side of history--and ensure a vaccine is a global common good, free of intellectual property protections."
The world leaders' and Nobel laureates' letter came on the same day that an international coalition of 250 civil society groups urged the head of the World Trade Organization to embrace a temporary suspension of coronavirus vaccine-related patents.
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