UN adopts Pact for the Future urging ‘transition away from fossil fuels’

The UN Assembly has adopted its Pact for the Future, bringing back a mention to transition away from fossil fuels after removing it caused backlash in August.

The Pact for the Future, a list of 56 pledges to action seeking to combat climate change and social crises, calls on countries to” transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science” – including by phasing out “inefficient fossil fuel subsidies”.

It was adopted at this weekend’s UN Summit for the Future without a vote on Sunday, 22 September, after seven countries including Belarus, North Korea, Iran, Nicaragua, Russia, Sudan and Syria expressed their disagreement with the text.

António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, noted that he called for the Summit “because our world is heading off the rails” as “resources that could bring opportunities and hope are invested in death and destruction”. “Now it is our common responsibility to walk through it,” he added, warning that “we stand and fall not by adopting agreements — but by our actions and their impact on the lives of the people we serve”.

Fossil fuels back on the agenda

A previous draft, released last July, had dropped all mentions of fossil fuels, sparking outrage from former world leaders and Nobel laureates who warned that not addressing the threat of fossil fuels at the Summit for the Future risked “undermining a once-in-a-century opportunity to restore trust in the power of international cooperation”.

In the end, fossil fuels were brought back to the conversation at this weekend’s event, resulting in a Pact for the Future that was broadly welcomed by sustainability professionals. 

Richard Gardiner, Head of EU Public Policy at the World Benchmarking Alliance, hailed the “clear recognition that the private sector has a role to play in delivering the Sustainable Development Goals, confirming the importance of CSDDD, CSRD, etc”, as well as a call in the Pact for the financial sector to better manage their climate risks.

“The Pact, like any UN agreement, is only as strong and impactful as government action to implement it – so we will need to see whether this will deliver the landmark change needed,” Gardiner cautioned on Linkedin.