Countries that are dependent on oil extraction must immediately put an end to harmful activities such as routine flaring and prioritize the urgent phase-out of fossil fuels to ensure a rapid and just energy transition. According to a new report released today by Amnesty International, eliminating flaring is one of the most immediate and critical measures to address the climate crisis, which disproportionately affects historically marginalized communities in sacrifice zones.
The report, “The Amazon is burning, the future is burning!” Young activists defending the Ecuadorian Amazon from gas flares that threaten rights now and in the future, reveals how the Ecuadorian state is failing in its duty to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by allowing the operation of gas flares in the Amazon. Despite a 2021 court ruling on an action brought by nine girls and young women climate activists from communities in Sucumbíos and Orellana, supported by the Union of People Affected by Texaco’s Oil Operations (UDAPT), ordering the elimination of gas flaring, the Ecuadorian state continues to allow this harmful practice by the fossil fuel industry. Moreover, flaring is directly linked to global warming and the emission of super pollutants such as methane, thus threatening the enjoyment and guarantee of human rights now and in the future.
Amnesty International found that the Ecuadorian state has not fully complied with the ruling in the gas flares case issued on 29 July 2021 by the Provincial Court of Justice of Sucumbíos. The ruling provides that the flares operated by both the state-owned company and private companies must be gradually and progressively eliminated, prioritizing the removal of those located near population centres.
However, the testimonies collected, the documents analysed, and the information verified in the field for this report show that the Ecuadorian state and its institutions responsible for the energy sector have so far only taken measures that serve to maintain oil production at all costs, avoiding any concrete and ambitious steps to remove the flares and create the conditions necessary for a rapid and fair energy transition.
“The Ecuadorian authorities have an obligation to act decisively and promptly to urgently implement the ruling in the gas flares case brought by the nine girls and young women plaintiffs and UDAPT. Complying with this ruling is an act of climate, environmental and racial justice. The Ecuadorian state must put an end to the routine burning of gas in flares, a practice that is today endangering the Amazon, the world and the future of the children who will inherit the planet,” said Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International.
The negative impacts of flaring on human rights and the environment, and its contribution to global warming, are widely recognized by the international and the scientific communities.
For this reason, there are global initiatives in place to phase out flaring, and some countries have banned and regulated the practice. In the Americas, however, countries such as Ecuador, the United States, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela still use routine flaring during oil extraction. In general, both state-owned and private companies use flaring to reduce costs in socially and environmentally vulnerable areas known as “sacrifice zones”, where marginalization and poverty are compounded by the environmental degradation caused by oil extraction.
“By eliminating gas flares and committing to a transition to a fossil fuel-free economy, Ecuador can become a standard bearer for climate and environmental justice for the sake of the planet, now and in the future. Oil ‘wealth’ has never reached the Ecuadorian Amazon; rather, the region is a large oil sacrifice zone where children, including the girls and young women in the gas flares case, are one of the most vulnerable population groups.” -Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International.
According to the World Bank, Ecuador is one of the top 30 gas flaring countries in the world. By keeping the gas flares alight, it is perpetuating a highly harmful practice that threatens the lives, health and other rights of the country’s poorest people.
Amnesty International has been able to verify that at least 52 lighters are within 5 km of population centres, a distance that is potentially harmful to local communities and the environment.
By maintaining and protecting flaring rather than implementing existing alternatives to replace this practice, the Ecuadorian state is not only failing to comply with the court ruling but is also neglecting its international obligations to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and creating the conditions for the emission of super pollutants such as methane, which contribute to worsening global warming.
Ecuador’s economy has historically been based on oil extraction, and the country therefore has an important responsibility and opportunity to reduce GHG emissions from the sector and pave the way for a rapid and just energy transition that avoids further damage to the global climate system.
As anthropogenic damage to the global climate system from GHG emissions is cumulative, Ecuador’s failure to address unnecessary and harmful practices such as routine gas flaring is a violation of its duty to mitigate and protect human rights in the context of climate change and puts people and the future of humanity at risk.
“The courageous girls and young women plaintiffs in the gas flares case, now known as Warriors for the Amazon, are showing us that children and young people around the world are urgently demanding climate, racial and gender justice, as well as radical changes for human rights and nature,” said Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International.
Header photo credit: © Iván Martínez/Amnesty International
