UN Climate Expert Urges Fossil Fuel Phaseout and Disinformation Penalties

Morgera’s report calls for “defossilizing” economies, knowledge and information systems. It focuses on wealthy countries that are projected to expand fossil fuel extraction and use, despite what she described as the scientific consensus that fossil fuels are the main cause of climate change. She said governments including those of the U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada continue to provide the industry with billions of dollars a year in subsidies, including direct payments and tax breaks. Eliminating that support could cut global fossil fuel emissions by 10% by 2030, the report says.

The report also calls for accountability over decades of climate denial and what Morgera described as efforts to obstruct action. She said governments should protect public debate from undue commercial influence and prohibit fossil fuel industry lobbying. ExxonMobil and Chevron spent more than $153 million lobbying in the U.S. last year, with spending rising each year since 2020, according to OpenSecrets. Morgera also urged states to ban fossil fuel advertising and criminalize industry misinformation and misrepresentation, as well as the role of media and advertising firms in amplifying it.

Some measures are already in place or have political support: The Hague adopted a municipal ordinance banning fossil fuel ads in 2023, the Australian Green Party has backed such a ban, and Western Australia has implemented one. Morgera told The Guardian that a renewable-energy transition is cheaper and safer for economies and healthier for societies, and could reduce taxpayer spending on climate impacts and health costs while helping recover lost tax revenue from fossil fuel companies.

She argued that states’ obligations under international humanitarian law support a fossil fuel phaseout by 2030, citing threats to the survival of low-emitting states, people’s livelihoods as ecosystems deteriorate, and the cultural survival of small island populations, Indigenous peoples, people of African descent, peasants and small-scale fishers. The report was presented as more than a third of Tuvaluans applied for visas to move to Australia under a climate deal between the two countries. Morgera said the harms borne by people in the Global South, who contributed little to the climate emergency, make an urgent and just transition necessary.