25 September 2024
Break the Fossil Chain:
Global Civil Society, Communities in Support of Moratorium on LNG
As the United Nations General Assembly opened earlier this week, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres announced the adoption of a ‘Pact for the Future’ that reaffirms the COP28 pledge of “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems in a just, orderly and equitable manner.” Despite loopholes, this is no small feat: it is the fruition of the fight long waged by communities across the globe against fossil fuels.
Right on the heels of this Pact, over a hundred parliamentarians from all over the world issued a letter addressed to the US government for an immediate ban on all new liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports.
We, the undersigned communities, movements, and civil society, express our collective support to this demand. We further call for a stop to the reckless expansion of gas and LNG extraction, transport, and power generation in our communities and sites across the world.
Today, it is our communities who suffer among the worst impacts of the climate crisis. The same communities are doubly jeopardized by the massive buildout of LNG globally under the guise of an energy transition. In truth, LNG is a bridge fuel to nowhere but continued environmental and climate degradation. It is no less destructive than coal or oil, ensuring the continued emissions of greenhouse gasses. Methane, the gas which LNG is primarily composed of and which it releases in every stage of its life cycle, is over 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in triggering global temperature rise over a shorter time period.
In peddling this bridge fuel lie, governments, companies, and financiers backing the global LNG buildout endanger not only our climate survival, but also the health of coasts and seas which breathe life to our world’s marine ecosystems and provide sustenance and livelihood to many. Construction of LNG extraction, import, export, and power generation facilities cause irreversible damage to coastal ecosystems that serve as spawning grounds for fish and other creatures. Severely increased shipping activities of fuel in tankers hundreds in meters in length disrupt marine life and displace fisherfolk from their fishing grounds.
Biodiversity-rich yet LNG-impacted sites such as the Verde Island Passage in the Philippines, and Southeast Asia’s Coral Triangle as a whole, the Gulf of California, the waters of Mexico, Louisiana, and Texas - all these represent but the tip of the iceberg in the contribution of LNG and continued fossil fuel activities to the risk of collapse for our world’s marine ecosystems, which already face extreme perils amid the climate crisis. In risking these, LNG also endangers cultures and ways of living of peoples in host communities whose lives are intertwined with the health of our seas. Meanwhile, pollution from LNG facilities gravely endanger the health of host communities from toxic air and waters.
Proponents of the LNG buildout are gambling with our lives, livelihoods, and entire ecosystems while still failing to contribute to energy security and affordability of countries hosting expansion plans. Mozambique and Bangladesh are dire examples of countries now being driven to debt and whose people are burning their pockets from high costs of LNG, after the buildout failed to deliver promised revenues due to the industry’s volatility.
LNG is no bridge to a sustainable or livable future. It is a chain that binds vulnerable communities around the world to continued fossil fuel reliance, economic burden, and worse climate chaos. LNG, too, is a roadblock to a swift and just transition from clean, affordable, and reliable energy from renewables that our countries can and should instead be pursuing today.
We, the undersigned, reject the aggression for LNG in our countries and the rest of the world. We concur with the hundreds of parliamentarians and other global champions seeking an end to fossil fuel expansion, and promoting an urgent fossil fuel phaseout. It is high time that we break the fossil chain that this false bridge fuel represents. Governments, companies, and financial institutions across the world must stop endangering our very climate and ecological survival, and instead pave the path for a renewable energy transition aligned to global climate imperatives.
Signed:
Protect the Verde Island Passage Campaign (Protect VIP)
Center for Energy, Ecology and Development (CEED)
Power for People Coalition (P4P)
WagGas (No to Gas Philippines)
SEA Working Group on Gas and Just Energy Transition
Gulf South Fossil Finance Hub
Texas Campaign for Environment
Vessel Project of Louisiana
For a Better Bayou
Friends of the Earth Japan
Greenpeace Thailand
350.org Asia
Caritas Philippines
Koalisi Rakyat untuk Hak atas Air (KRuHA)
Trend Asia
Coastal Livelihood and Environmental Action Network (CLEAN)
urgewald
Oil Change International
Friend of the Earth US
Bukluran ng Mangingisda sa Batangas
Youth for Climate Hope Philippines
Fishermen Involved in Sustaining our Heritage (FISH)
Stand.earth
Andy Gheorghiu Consulting
German Climate Alliance Against LNG
Innovation pour le Développement et la Protection de l'Environnement
Gen-Z for Change
Earthworks
Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ)
Louisiana land Owner
Ingleside on the Bay Coastal Watch Association
Climate Conversation Brazoria County
Ministry of Integral Ecology - Diocese of Lucena, Quezon for Environment
Conexiones Climáticas
South Durban Community Environmental Alliance
Sipaway Seagrass Guardians
Treasure Leitrim
Save Dough Mountain
Mothers Rise Up
North Leitrim SEC
BankTrack
Leave it in the Ground Initiative (LINGO)
Friends of the Earth US
Zero Hour
Say No to LNG
Solutions for Our Climate (SFOC)
Food and Water Watch
Samahan ng Mamamayan Zone One Tondo Inc.(SM-ZOTO)
Philippine Misereor Partnership Inc.
Turtle Island Restoration Network
Fenceline Watch
Oilfield Witness
Rainforest Action Network
San Antonio Bay Waterkeeper
Habitat Recovery Project
ECIP National Secretariat
Sanlakas
Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment (SEARICE)
Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM)
Sibuyanos Against Mining
KUMASA NA - Koalisyon ng mga Mamamayan at Sambayanan ng Northern at Sentral Luzon
Bayay Sibuyanon Inc.
International Institute for Research and Education - Manila
Alyansa ng mga Mamamayan para sa Karapatang Pantao (AMKP)
USTP - Agropolis S&T Park
Greenpeace Philippines
Kaagapay OFW Resource & Service Center, Inc.
350 Pilipinas
Save the Beauty of La Union Coalition, Inc.
REFERENCES & CONTACTS:
Gerry Arances
Executive Director, Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development (CEED)
gerry.arances@ceedphilippines.com
+63 917 193 8104
Jeffrey Jacoby
Deputy Director, Texas Campaign for the Environment
+1 512 502 4718
Angelica Dacanay
Lead - Southeast Asia Just Energy Transition Program, CEED
+63 915 782 8118