For Tzeporah Berman, initiating the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty wasn’t just an idea; it was a vision rooted in passion and inspired by one of the world’s most iconic environmentalists: the late Hon. Wangari Maathai.

She reveals having first heard about Maathai while living in Canada as a teenager. Deeply moved by Maathai’s work with the Green Belt Movement (GBM) in Kenya, Berman wrote her a heartfelt letter, asking how she could support the cause. This saw her dedicated in her university days to the collection of donations for GBM, committing herself to a movement thousands of miles away.

One day, a reply from a GBM member landed in her mailbox. It was brief, but it left a lasting mark. “You should look and see what’s happening in your forests too,” the letter read. “That statement changed everything for me,” Berman recalls. “It redirected my entire career.”

Curious and disturbed, she began researching Canadian forests, and what she found was shocking.

On the West Coast of Canada, vast, ancient temperate rainforests, some of the oldest in the world, with trees towering 300 feet and thousands of years old, were being cut down for disposable paper products: magazines, tissues, and newspapers.

“Imagine,” she says, still visibly affected, “cutting down thousand-year-old trees to make tissue paper.”

In 1993, Berman traveled to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, to join a growing resistance against the logging of these ancient forests. What began as research turned into frontline activism.

She became one of the lead organizers of non-violent protests with the community that would become some of the largest acts of civil disobedience in Canadian history.

“We blockaded logging roads multiple times,” she says. “And because I was helping organize it, I was charged with 857 criminal counts of aiding and abetting, enough to get me six years in jail.”

It was at this moment that Berman received support from some of Canada’s most respected lawyers who stepped up to defend her.

“They had seen me on the news,” she explains. “They argued that I had the right to speak and organize under the Canadian Constitution, that I wasn’t responsible for individual decisions others made to protest.”

She won the case, which meant that instead of the six years behind bars, she was only eligible to serve two weeks, after which her passion was more rejuvenated. “But even those two weeks felt long,” she laughs. “Still, I knew I wasn’t done.”

After her release, Berman would double down on her advocacy, which saw her get hired by Greenpeace, where she launched a global campaign to stop logging Canada’s old-growth forests for export to Europe and the U.S.

Her efforts bore fruit, considering that over time, Berman helped protect six million hectares of old-growth forest in Canada, including the renowned Great Bear Rainforest, a jewel of the temperate rainforest ecosystem along the west coast.

All was well until 2003, when a new crisis of constant wildfires occurring on an annual basis caught her attention, prompting her research into what would be the cause.

“The very forests I had spent years helping to protect were now burning,” she says. “Wildfires. Beetle infestations. It became clear, this was the impact of climate change.” So, once again, she pivoted. “I started researching climate change. That was the shift for me. Now I’ve been working on it for over 22 years.”

Her climate advocacy would then take on a global dimension with her new occupation and the reach it had offered her. As the connections between fossil fuel production and ecological breakdown became clearer, Berman began to champion a more systemic response, one that addressed fossil fuels at their source.

“Countries don’t keep developing fossil fuels because they want to,” she says. “Often, it’s out of economic necessity, to service debt, to meet energy demands. That’s why international cooperation is essential.”

Together with a coalition of experts, Berman began building a movement around a bold idea: a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. The treaty calls on countries to stop expanding fossil fuel production, phase out existing operations fairly, and support a just transition for workers and communities.

“It’s about ensuring countries have the financial and technological support to move toward renewables,” she explains. “We need mechanisms, trade deals, tax reform, even debt relief, that direct finance to countries ready to transition.”

She and her team now work with finance experts from the Global South to design these mechanisms.

“We’re asking: how can we channel real support into African countries and other vulnerable regions to phase out fossil fuels? Because most aren’t doing it by choice. They need energy. They need income. But they also need options.”

Berman emphasizes that renewables are no longer the technology of the future; they’re the reality of today. “Renewable energy is safer, cheaper, and more sustainable. But we can’t just build clean alternatives, we also have to stop expanding the problem.”

Milestones in the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Campaign

One of the first major wins came when 101 Nobel Laureates, including the Dalai Lama, signed on in support of the treaty. “I was nervous at first,” she admits. “What would world leaders think? But when you walk into a room with a letter backed by 100 Nobel Prize winners, people take it seriously.”

Next major stride would come from scientists who issued a global letter, which she hoped might get 500 signatures, and to her surprise, the numbers garnered were way more. “We published it, and 3,000 scientists endorsed it. That’s when I knew: we’re gaining real momentum.”

A watershed moment followed at the UN General Assembly, when Vanuatu became the first country to officially call for the treaty. “Being on the UN floor, hearing the Prime Minister of Vanuatu endorse our call, that was powerful,” she recounts.

Then came an even more symbolic moment. At COP28 in Dubai, Colombian President Gustavo Petro, leader of one of the world’s top five coal-producing nations, publicly backed the treaty.

“He stood up and said: ‘Every day we develop more fossil fuels, we make the problem worse. We’re threatening our people, not protecting them. But we can’t act alone, we need international support.’”

She still remembers Petro’s translated speech, now circulating widely online: “There are two paths before us. One leads to life and an economy that sustains it. The other leads to death. And if you don’t believe fossil fuels are killing us, you are being naive.”

Berman cites data showing fossil fuels are now the single largest contributor to premature death globally, with over 8 million people dying each year from fossil fuel-related air pollution. “Our children are choking,” she says firmly. “This isn’t just a climate issue. It’s a health crisis. And a moral one.”

“And it’s not just governments that are seeing the need for this treaty,” Berman reflects. “Grassroots communities, civil society groups, the Global South, trade unions, cities, they all want it. They understand the urgency.”

For Berman, what began as a letter to Wangari Maathai has now become a global call to action. The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty is no longer just a vision; it’s a movement gaining ground across continents.

“If people in power start to see this not as a radical idea, but as a rational path forward,” she says, “then we know we’re finally turning the tide.”