'Unprecedented' Lofoten Declaration Demands Managed Decline of Fossil Fuel Industry

As climate scientists stress that climate change has contributed to the enormous size and strength recent storms including Hurricane Irma, which has killed at least ten people in the Caribbean and left the island of Barbuda “uninhabitable” as it heads toward Florida, a coalition of more than 220 organizations called for a “managed decline of fossil fuel production” on Thursday, with an immediate end to new oil, gas, and coal development.

“Leadership must come from countries that are high-income, have benefitted from fossil fuel extraction, and that are historically responsible for significant emissions.”—The Lofoten Declaration

The Lofoten Declaration, named for an archipelago in Norway where drilling by the oil industry has been successfully blocked by environmental groups, demands “unprecedented action to avoid the worst consequences of our dependence on oil, coal, and gas.” The document notes that new oil and gas exploration and production are “incompatible with limiting global warming to well below 2ºC,” the stated goal of the Paris climate agreement of 2016, and that countries that do not embrace clean energy will soon be left behind: