A UN Special Rapporteur on climate change and human rights urged countries on Monday to phase out fossil fuels to combat the climate crisis following the 10 hottest years in history, which saw average global temperatures reach 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in 2024, exceeding the Paris Agreement threshold.
Presenting her latest report to the Human Rights Council (HRC), Elisa Morgera stated:
Defossilisation of our whole economies is urgent from a human rights perspective and truly the single most impactful health contribution. It entails prioritising the phase out of fossil fuels, including various forms of financing them, within and beyond the energy sector.
The UN official emphasized that it is scientifically clear that fossil fuels are the primary cause of climate change and the main driver of biodiversity loss, toxic pollution, inequalities, and mass human rights violations. She stated that the risks associated with the widespread and compounded impacts of climate change on all human rights are becoming “catastrophic and irreparable,” particularly for small island nations and children worldwide. These environmental pressures increase social and political instability, leading to increases in gender-based violence, human trafficking, and slavery.
Morgera’s comprehensive recommendations to countries include revoking existing fossil fuel exploration licenses, strictly regulating the import and export of fossil fuels, penalizing the fossil fuel industry for greenwashing, and holding media and advertising firms accountable for amplifying disinformation and misinformation. She further urged countries to support efforts to prevent tax evasion and green-laundering that benefit fossil fuel companies in negotiating the United Nations framework convention on international tax cooperation.
The expert expressed concern over strategies taken by fossil fuels companies that obstruct mitigation of the negative effects of climate change, including their increased influence Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework meetings. At the national level, Morgera warned that these companies seek to hinder regulation and enforcement of climate laws and fund the spread of misinformation about the feasibility of renewables.
This follows research by the Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) coalition and the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) conducted in 2023, which identified 200 examples of YouTube videos containing climate misinformation and disinformation. One example of such misinformation included the claim that “climate hysteria is just another rebrand, a Trojan horse for anti-white, anti-Western communist tyranny.” The research concluded that online algorithms incentivize the spread of misinformation and claimed these videos hosted ads for major companies, such as Costco, Politico, and Tommy Hilfiger.
The report is timely as Southern Europe is engulfed in the first major heatwave of 2025, causing raging wildfires in Turkey and France. Other European countries including Italy and Portugal are on high alert. Notably, several wildfires also broke out in Southern California, forcing evacuation of hundreds of people. Experts argue that a “heat dome” is the primary cause of the sweltering weather.
