A/HRC/44/44 fossil fuels must cooperate to eliminate much fossil fuel production because climate change is a global ecological process and, while they profit from continued emissions, they imperil the fundamental human rights of everyone around the world. 31. Recognizing this need to move away from fossil fuels, some financial regulators have been ahead of the curve in warning that investments in fossil fuels pose a risk of “stranded assets”. 75 However, beyond the investor perspective, there has been little engagement with poorer developing countries that produce oil, gas and coal about the ramifications of tackling fossil fuels on their rights to development, including important social and economic rights that are bound up with their energy production systems. 76 The assumption underlying current approaches to restricting fossil fuels is that the market will decide which countries better endure the transition away from their exploitation.77 Recent proposals in this regard are selective, and are not organized and internationally negotiated. 78 They include divestment, moratoriums and the elimination of international finance for fossil fuels in developing countries. An international solidarity concern here is that such measures, which rightly help to curb fossil fuels, raise questions about both distributive outcomes and the possibilities for collective action. 32. Indeed, piecemeal market approaches to constrain the exploitation of fossil fuels may exacerbate disparities in the global economy by disproportionately affecting poorer fossil fuel producing countries – especially if they depend on this sector for revenues, livelihoods and access to electricity and heat, while having less capacity than wealthier States to diversify their economies and switch to renewable energy. 79 Current approaches may also incentivize attempts to profit from expanded fossil fuel production in the near term, which aggravates climate change and makes it more difficult to adjust to renewable energy systems. Despite our climate crisis, in 2018, investments in coal rose by 2 per cent and investments in oil and gas rose by 4 per cent. 80 33. Apart from discussions about climate change, there are rich debates in the international human rights community about the mixed record that fossil fuels and other extractive operations have in yielding socioeconomic gains, as well as about widespread local experiences with displacement and violence arising from systems of extraction (see, e.g., A/HRC/41/54). While these debates are extremely important, they tend not to grapple sufficiently with the reality that climate change leaves us with no choice but to drastically restructure current modes of production and consumption tied to high-emitting extractives, most notably fossil fuels, and that a badly managed transition may itself perpetuate structural injustices. 34. From the perspective of human rights-based international solidarity, what is missing is genuine global cooperation on a managed transition away from unsustainable fossil fuels that prioritizes the achievement of justice for the most vulnerable peoples, especially in the global South (see A/74/161). Support, rather than market competition, should drive the allocation of our global carbon budget in line with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. 81 Sharing burdens under this principle in the context of fossil fuels relates to the inability of poorer States to act while also fulfilling human rights; the main responsibility of high-emitting States for creating the problem; and the sheer necessity of solidarity and cooperation. Consistent with common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, wealthy developed and developing States could take the lead in reforming their fossil fuel sectors and provide 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 12 See, e.g., Pilita Clark, “Mark Carney warns investors face ‘huge’ climate change losses”, Financial Times, 29 September 2015. Siân Bradley, Glada Lahn and Steve Pye, Carbon Risk and Resilience: How Energy Transition is Changing the Prospects for Developing Countries with Fossil Fuels (London, Chatham House, 2018), p. 45. Kartha and others, “Whose carbon is burnable?”, p. 119. See Piggot and others, “Addressing fossil fuel production”; Bretton Woods Project, “EIB rules out most fossil fuel funding from 2021, setting new benchmark for MDBs”, 12 December 2019. See Kartha and others, “Whose carbon is burnable?”. See International Energy Agency, World Energy Investment 2019 (Paris, 2019). See Kartha and others, “Whose carbon is burnable?”.