A group of mayors representing the world's largest cities, including New York, London, Paris, Beijing and Cape Town, has called on the leaders from nearly 200 countries attending this year's UN Conference of the Parties (COP28), hosted by the United Arab Emirates, to commit to an end to the era of fossil fuels.
A letter submitted at the conference, signed by the participating mayors read: "We must phase out fossil fuels to protect our climate but also to protect people from the unjust impacts on their health and standard of living".
It also called to implement measures to "curb the undue influence of the fossil fuel industry, to move public money from fossil fuels to a just and clean energy transition and partner with us to accelerate action and prosperity".
This year's COP has been subject to controversy as there were widespread comments that the hosts of this year's event are planning to use its prominence to increase talks and draw plans with other countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Russia, to increase oil drilling and exploit more fossil resources, instead of focusing on the transition to net-zero.
According to the report produced by the United Nations, the world is set to double the amount of fossil fuels burned by 2030, which could have catastrophic consequences on the climate and human health, with the US being on track to produce record amounts of gas and oil this year, despite climate pledges and net-zero commitments.
