Advocacy Groups Urge Governments to Create Permanent Fossil-Free Zones

The declaration defines a Fossil Free Zone as an area where fossil fuel exploration, extraction and development are permanently prohibited because of its ecological, biodiversity or cultural importance. Examples include tropical rainforests, key biodiversity areas, Indigenous territories and critical marine ecosystems. Cecilia Requena, a Bolivian senator and environmentalist, and Juan Pablo Osornio, Earth Insight’s engagement and policy director, said the zones could turn transition commitments into mapped boundaries and legal safeguards.

The document argues that continued dependence on fossil fuels leaves countries and communities exposed to volatile energy markets, supply disruptions and economic instability, while weakening energy security and national sovereignty. It also links extraction to deforestation and biodiversity loss, and calls for an end to new exploration and expansion, alongside the responsible closure of existing projects in areas of climatic, ecological and cultural importance.

Signatories include WWF International, Amazon Watch, the Science Panel for the Amazon and Parliamentarians for a Fossil Free Future. Earth Insight senior associate for diplomacy Ignacio Arróniz Velasco said governments could establish zones using existing tools, including nature-protection laws and land-tenure recognition. He urged countries to include them in national roadmaps at COP31.

WWF Norway fossil fuel transition lead Susanne Waage called the Arctic an obvious candidate, saying it is warming more than twice as fast as the rest of the globe. She criticized Norway for continuing to explore for oil and gas there and said the European Union, Norway’s largest oil and gas customer, had already rejected new Arctic development.

Pascal Mirindi, the Democratic Republic of Congo coordinator for Our Land Without Oil, said projects in the DRC threaten territories and the livelihoods of communities that depend on them. He called for governments to stop new exploration in critical ecosystems, recognize Fossil Free Zones in national roadmaps and center community rights in a just transition.