Dear Party Leaders,
It is now widely recognised that global temperatures have passed the Paris Agreement threshold of +1.5°C above pre-industrial levels with records showing a running average temperature rise of 1.61°C in the 12 months to April 2024.
The consequences of this breach should be well known to anyone seeking political office in this country. The evidence continues to accumulate. Global heating, driven by fossil fuels, represents a grave and rising threat to human health, to food security, to our economy, to peace and security. Put simply, fossil fuels will kill people in their millions and destroy everything we hold dear.
Faced with such an imminent threat, continuing to extract and burn fossil fuels is nothing short of an act of war against small island states and the poor living in the global south, an utter betrayal of the young and an act of treason against the United Kingdom.
In light of this, if you are elected as the next Prime Minister, your first responsibility must be to ensure the robust defence of the people you have been elected to serve. It is crystal clear that the COP process has failed and we now need a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty – a concrete, globally binding plan to end all new coal, oil and gas projects and manage a fair and equitable transition away from fossil fuels.
We therefore demand that, should you become our next Prime Minister, you immediately commit the UK government to work with other nations to establish a legally binding treaty to stop extracting and burning oil, gas and coal by 2030 as well as supporting and financing other countries to make a fair and just transition.
This can be accomplished by endorsing the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative and seeking a negotiating mandate to establish the treaty.
Failing to do so, would be both criminal and murderous.
If you do not provide such assurance by 12 July 2024, we will be forced to take action to protect our communities by engaging in a campaign of noncooperation against fossil fuel use at airports across the country.
The era of fossil fuels is over. It’s time to stop waging war on the young.
Yours sincerely,
Just Stop Oil.
cc
Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP
Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party
Rt Hon Sir Keir Starmer KCB KC MP
Leader of HM Opposition, Leader of the Labour Party
Rt Hon Sir Ed Davey MP
Leader of the Liberal Democrat Party
Carla Denyer
Adrian Ramsay
Leaders of the Green Party
John Swinney MSP
First Minister
Scottish Government
Leader of the SNP
Alex Salmond
Leader of the Alba Party
Nigel Farage
Leader of Reform UK
Naomi Long MLA
Leader of the Alliance Party
Colum Eastwood MP
Leader of the Social Democratic & Labour Party
Rhun ap Iorwerth MS
Leader of Plaid Cymru
Gavin Robinson MP
Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party