Professor Martí Orta-Martínez participates in Climate Week in New York
Professor Martí Orta-Martínez, from the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) of the University of Barcelona, is one of the experts participating this week in New York Climate Week 2024, which takes place from September 22 to 29. This international forum aims to focus on the achievement of climate goals and the need to increase the commitments undertaken by companies, governments and organizations to alleviate the effects of climate change throughout the planet.
New York Climate Week has become a benchmark that brings together business leaders, policy-makers at all decision-making levels, members of the world's most influential climate organizations, representatives of civil society, etc., together with the General Assembly of the United Nations and New York City to drive the energy transition and advocate for the changes that are already underway.
Among other activities, Professor Martí Orta-Martínez is one of the participants in the event Toward a Fossil Fuel Treaty: Building a Community for Change, a forum aimed at allowing the approval of a treaty on the non-proliferation of fossil fuels and addressing global mechanisms to manage a swift and fair phase-out of fossil fuels
It should be remembered that Orta-Martínez directed a study (Nature Communications, 2023) that presented the atlas of non-extractable oil in the world, in collaboration with experts Gorka Muñoa and Guillem Rius-Taberner (UB-IRBio); Llorenç Pellegrini and Murat Arsel, from the Erasmus University of Rotterdam (Netherlands), and Carlos Mena, from the University of San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador).
The non-extractable oil atlas provides a new roadmap for the so far ineffective international climate policy—based fundamentally on the demand for fossil fuels—by identifying the fossil resources that need to be left underground.
According to the conclusions, in order to limit global warming to 1.5 °C, it is essential to avoid the exploitation of most oil resources, while pointing out as priority areas of non-exploitation the most socio-environmentally sensitive areas of the planet, such as areas protected natural areas, priority areas for the conservation of biodiversity, points of high richness of endemic species, urban areas and the territories of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation.
As part of the paper, the authors called for urgent action by governments, corporations, citizens and large investors — such as pension funds — to immediately halt all investment in the fossil fuel industry and infrastructure in order to guarantee the fulfillment of the Paris agreements.
