The world's leading climate scientists have concluded that the "balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate" (IPCC1995);

Climate change will cause the greatest suffering to the poorest peoples and most pristine ecosystems globally;

All people have "the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being and that they bear a solemn responsibility to protect and improve the environment for present and future generations"(1972 Stockholm Declaration);

Climate change is only one part of the ecological debt accumulated by the industrialized countries through their exploitation of resources in the South;

The burning of oil, gas, and coal is the primary cause of human-induced climate change;

The burning of even a portion of known economically recoverable fossil fuel reserves ensures climate catastrophe;

The avoidance of climate catastrophe requires a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels--especially oil and coal--and a transition to safe and renewable forms of energy;

Transnational corporations and state owned energy companies have primary responsibility for the exploitation of fossil fuel reserves, which results in climate change, the destruction of critical ecosystems and the biological and cultural diversity contained therein;

Governments are responsible for failing to set adequate regulations for their oil company operations locally and abroad, for failing to invest in sustainable sources of energy, and for encouraging the large-scale sell-off of fossil fuel resources;

The increasing exploitation of fossil fuels in natural forests, which are critical ecosystems in the maintenance of climate stability, results in numerous impacts on these vital areas through deforestation and pollution from drilling operations and ultimately forest degradation from global climate change;

The mining and drilling for coal, oil, and gas results in substantial local environmental consequences, including severe degradation of air, forests, rivers, and farmlands, the impacts of which are becoming increasingly regional in character as the number and size of fossil fuel projects rapidly grow;

Corruption, cultural destruction, involuntary resettlement, and violence are too often the outcomes of fossil fuel development;

Fossil fuel exploration continues to move into ecological frontier areas, home to some of the Earth's last and most vulnerable indigenous populations, resulting in accelerated losses of biodiversity and traditional knowledge and ultimately ending in ethnocide and genocide;

The Bretton Woods institutions (including the World Bank Group, the IMF and the regional development banks), together with bilateral aid agencies, and the World Trade Organization, have a major responsibility for promoting and enforcing the structural adjustment and liberalization policies which lead countries to exploit their fossil fuel reserves with devastating effects not only on the global climate, but also on regional ecosystems and local peoples;

Taxpayer funds from Northern countries that are intended for poverty alleviation and sustainable development, which must be paid back by Southern taxpayers, are instead being used by multilateral and bilateral aid agencies for corporate welfare in the form of investments in fossil fuel projects, which benefit mainly multinational corporations and local elites in the borrowing countries;

The energy sector is traditionally one of the largest lending portfolios for multilateral and bilateral development and export credit agencies, and fossil fuels comprise the bulk of that energy lending;

At least 2 billion rural poor cannot even meet their basic energy needs (cooking, heating, lighting) and renewable and safe forms of energy are the most promising and least environmentally damaging of the energy options in servicing their energy needs;

Nuclear power plants and large hydroelectric dams are plagued with social, environmental, and economic problems and thus are not the solution to the climate crisis.

Therefore, we the undersigned call for:

1. A moratorium on all new exploration for fossil fuel reserves in pristine and frontier areas;

2. An end to all lending, credit, and other forms of subsidy from the publicly-funded multilateral and bilateral overseas development, export credit, and investment insurance agencies for fossil fuel extraction and extraction-related projects;

3. A moratorium on all lending, credit, and other forms of finance from the publicly funded multilateral and bilateral overseas development and export credit agencies toward all fossil fueled power projects pending:

¥ Evaluations of all current and future power projects in full consultation with the communities most affected by the project, respecting the right of the local populations to decline a project which may adversely impact them;

¥ The consistent implementation of environmental impact reviews on all future power projects which fully examine options for demand-side management and clean, renewable, decentralized energy options such as wind, solar, and micro-hydro;

¥ The full and public availability of these reviews to project- affected peoples in local languages;

4. Oil, gas, and coal prices that properly reflect the true costs of their extraction and consumption, including the best estimate of their role in causing climate change in order to apply the polluter pays principle to reflect the cost of carbon in the price;

5. A full recognition of the ecological debt as it relates to the impacts of fossil fuel extraction and the need to build it into all future climate negotiations;

6. A legally binding obligation to restore all areas affected by oil, gas, and coal exploration and exploitation by the corporations or public entities that are responsible;

7. All public funds now spent by governments, multilateral, and bilateral overseas development, export credit and investment insurance agencies on subsidizing fossil fuel extraction in the energy sector to be used instead entirely for investments in clean, renewable, and decentralized forms of energy, with a particular focus on meeting the energy needs of the poorest 2 billion people.

For the planet and its people,