Caribbean na­tions fac­ing grow­ing cli­mate threats are among those be­ing urged to strength­en pro­tec­tions against oil and gas ex­pan­sion.

More than 40 en­vi­ron­men­tal and civ­il so­ci­ety or­gan­i­sa­tions have called on gov­ern­ments at­tend­ing the UN Cli­mate Change Con­fer­ence (COP31) to es­tab­lish Fos­sil-Free Zones, warn­ing that con­tin­ued oil and gas ex­pan­sion threat­ens vul­ner­a­ble re­gions, in­clud­ing the Caribbean, where com­mu­ni­ties are al­ready grap­pling with the im­pacts of cli­mate change.

The joint de­c­la­ra­tion, re­leased on Thurs­day, urges gov­ern­ments to halt new fos­sil fu­el ex­plo­ration and ex­pan­sion in en­vi­ron­men­tal­ly and cul­tur­al­ly sig­nif­i­cant ar­eas while pri­ori­tis­ing the re­spon­si­ble clo­sure of ex­ist­ing projects.

Sig­na­to­ries in­clude WWF In­ter­na­tion­al, the Sci­ence Pan­el for the Ama­zon and Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans for a Fos­sil-Free Fu­ture, along­side In­dige­nous and grass­roots or­gan­i­sa­tions.

The groups ar­gue that near­ly three years af­ter coun­tries agreed at COP28 to tran­si­tion away from fos­sil fu­els, gov­ern­ments have yet to es­tab­lish a clear im­ple­men­ta­tion path­way.

“COP31 must break this im­passe and re­new po­lit­i­cal mo­men­tum for this agen­da,” the de­c­la­ra­tion states.

The ap­peal fol­lows the Brazil­ian COP30 Pres­i­den­cy’s pre­sen­ta­tion of a fos­sil fu­el tran­si­tion roadmap on No­vem­ber 10, build­ing on dis­cus­sions in­volv­ing 57 coun­tries in San­ta Mar­ta, Colom­bia, ear­li­er this year.

A fol­low-up in­ter­na­tion­al con­fer­ence, co-host­ed by Tu­valu and Ire­land, is sched­uled for 2027.

Caribbean liveli­hoods at risk

Caribbean cam­paign­ers say ex­pand­ing off­shore oil and gas ex­plo­ration pos­es ad­di­tion­al risks to ma­rine ecosys­tems and coastal liveli­hoods in a re­gion al­ready high­ly ex­posed to cli­mate change.

Car­oli­na Sánchez, spokesper­son for the Fos­sil Free Wider Caribbean Net­work, said some Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean coun­tries have al­ready in­tro­duced fos­sil fu­el mora­to­ri­ums, but fur­ther re­gion­al ac­tion is need­ed.

“The ex­pan­sion of new oil and gas ex­plo­ration con­tin­ues to put at risk mil­lions of liveli­hoods around the Caribbean Sea,” Sánchez warned.

She called for in­ter­na­tion­al sup­port to recog­nise Fos­sil-Free Zones as a prac­ti­cal mea­sure to pro­tect vul­ner­a­ble Caribbean ter­ri­to­ries while ad­vanc­ing a just en­er­gy tran­si­tion.

For­mer Colom­bian min­is­ter Irene Vélez Tor­res said coun­tries need stronger in­ter­na­tion­al co­op­er­a­tion and fi­nanc­ing to move away from fos­sil fu­els with­out sac­ri­fic­ing eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment or en­vi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion.

“That shift needs in­ter­na­tion­al co­op­er­a­tion and fi­nance, so no coun­try has to choose be­tween its forests and its fu­ture,” she said.

Vélez Tor­res al­so point­ed to Colom­bia’s ex­pe­ri­ence with re­strict­ing oil and gas de­vel­op­ment in the Ama­zon, warn­ing that such pro­tec­tions must be made per­ma­nent to with­stand changes in gov­ern­ment pol­i­cy.

Push for per­ma­nent pro­tec­tion

Fos­sil-Free Zones would per­ma­nent­ly pro­hib­it fos­sil fu­el ex­plo­ration, ex­trac­tion and re­lat­ed in­fra­struc­ture in ter­ri­to­ries of eco­log­i­cal, cul­tur­al or so­cial im­por­tance.

Sup­port­ers say gov­ern­ments could es­tab­lish the zones through ex­ist­ing con­ser­va­tion laws, land-use poli­cies and In­dige­nous land rights.

Ac­cord­ing to fig­ures cit­ed by the coali­tion, ap­prox­i­mate­ly 27 per cent of glob­al oil re­sources lie be­neath crit­i­cal ecosys­tems, while oil and gas con­ces­sions over­lap about 21 per cent of trop­i­cal moist forests.

Vélez Tor­res said gov­ern­ments must back their cli­mate com­mit­ments with stronger co­op­er­a­tion and last­ing pro­tec­tions.

“Lead­ers in An­talya have spo­ken about the tran­si­tion, and now their words must be mea­sured by the co­op­er­a­tion they pro­duce,” she said.

Gov­ern­ments urged to act

The de­c­la­ra­tion calls on gov­ern­ments to in­cor­po­rate Fos­sil-Free Zones in­to na­tion­al cli­mate com­mit­ments, de­for­esta­tion strate­gies and fos­sil fu­el tran­si­tion roadmaps.

It al­so seeks in­ter­na­tion­al recog­ni­tion of the ini­tia­tive and greater pro­tec­tion for In­dige­nous peo­ples and com­mu­ni­ties af­fect­ed by fos­sil fu­el de­vel­op­ment.

Flo­ren­cia Or­túzar Greene, cli­mate pro­gramme di­rec­tor at the In­ter­amer­i­can As­so­ci­a­tion for En­vi­ron­men­tal De­fense, said, “COP31 must now send a clear sig­nal that this work con­tin­ues.”

Igna­cio Ar­róniz Ve­las­co of Earth In­sight de­scribed the pro­pos­al as a prac­ti­cal step to­wards a wider fos­sil fu­el phase-out, not­ing that “Fos­sil-Free Zones are where the tran­si­tion away from fos­sil fu­els stops be­ing a promise and starts hap­pen­ing on the ground.”

The ini­tia­tive is co­or­di­nat­ed by the Fos­sil Free Zones Work­ing Group, a coali­tion of more than 25 NGOs and In­dige­nous or­gan­i­sa­tions sup­port­ed by a wider net­work of more than 100 groups.

The coali­tion is press­ing COP31 ne­go­tia­tors to recog­nise the zones as an ear­ly mea­sure in the glob­al tran­si­tion away from fos­sil fu­els, al­though their in­clu­sion in any fi­nal sum­mit agree­ment re­mains un­cer­tain.