Today, Left Co-President Manon Aubry and US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse released a transatlantic sign-on letter calling for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to address persistent fossil fuel industry interference. Addressed to US President Biden, President of the European Commission Ursula von Der Leyen, UN Executive Secretary Simon Stiell, and Secretary General António Guterres, the letter asks world leaders and UN institutions alike to advance accountability measures to safeguard UNFCCC from industry interference, beginning with the removal of an oil executive as the president of forthcoming talks.
The effort reinforces calls from a global network of more than 450 organizations, representing millions of people, that is demanding polluters be kicked out of climate talks as a critical means of assuring ambitious action in 2023.