Cali, Colombia—Halt new oil and gas activities and manage the decline of existing operations, particularly in areas of high biodiversity importance.
This is the urgent call of over 140 indigenous peoples, civil society organizations, and social movements to the Ministers of Environment and National Focal Points of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP16). In a statement, released during the COP16, the groups raised alarm over the risks of oil and gas activities to marine life and coastal communities.
“Oil and gas activity threatens biodiversity at every stage—from exploration and production to transportation and end-use. The industry’s operations and the use of its products disrupt fragile ecosystems, destroy habitats, and pollute air, water, and soil, pushing countless species to human-induced extinction. The risk oil and gas activity poses to biodiversity grows as these operations expand into vulnerable ecosystems,” the statement read.
The groups, led by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty (FFNPT), Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA), Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development (CEED), Oceana UK, EarthJustice, Natural Justice and WWF International, emphasized the importance of protecting environmental and human rights defenders, who are often targeted for their work in opposing harmful oil and gas projects. They call for strengthened international cooperation, including the pursuit of a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, to ensure a just and equitable transition to renewable energy sources.
“Halting oil and gas activity, particularly in areas of high biodiversity importance, is a necessary, minimum step towards upholding existing legal obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and other international laws,” the statement added.
In Southeast Asia, civil society and grassroots organizations have been airing concerns that oil and gas expansion and related activities greatly affected the Coral Triangle, a region famous for its high marine biodiversity concentrations.
“The relentless expansion of the LNG industry, especially in the critical Coral Triangle region, is an assault on our oceans. The Verde Island Passage, a global biodiversity hotspot, is now under siege. The risks posed by offshore oil and gas activities, from catastrophic spills to habitat destruction, are simply unacceptable,” said Gerry Arances, Executive Director of the Center of Energy, Ecology, and Development (CEED).
In Indonesia, especially on the remote island of Natuna, several oil leaks and mineral mining activities are ongoing, which could affect the island’s marine biodiversity and the livelihood of coastal communities.
“With the extractive projects of oil and gas or mineral mining, this island will disappear or be destroyed, and all of the fishing areas will also be destroyed,” said Dwi Sawung, Campaign Manager of Infrastructure and Spatial Planning of Friends of the Earth Indonesia, during a webinar hosted by CEED.
As COP16 draws to a close, this urgent call to halt new oil and gas activities underscores the critical role of biodiversity protection in achieving the 1.5°C climate goal. Meanwhile, the role of international financiers in this destruction is often underestimated. For instance, Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), a Japanese public financier, supports an LNG terminal in the “Amazon of the Ocean” in the Philippines, enabling these harmful fossil fuel projects, according to Hiroki Osada, Development Finance and Environment Campaigner of Friends of the Earth Japan.
“If fossil fuels continue to thrive, life on our planet cannot. Fossil fuel projects—such as LNG terminals along the coast and extraction fields in the open ocean—are destroying biodiversity with their toxic emissions and construction that strips away natural landscapes. Yet the role of international financiers in this biodiversity destruction is criminally underestimated…Saying YES to biodiversity means saying NO to fossil fuel finance,” said Osada.
