Climate Expert Says UN Emissions Report Makes Clear Only Solution Is to 'Cut Off Supply of Fossil Fuels at Their Source'

An annual United Nations report published Tuesday on current and estimated future greenhouse gas emissions shows the "urgent need for supply-side action" to combat the climate emergency, according to the advocacy group Food & Water Action.

"We have no time left to waste on neoliberal market tweaks that only seek to saddle working families with paying the costs of climate action."
--Mitch Jones, Food & Water Action

Mitch Jones, director of Food & Water Action's Climate & Energy Program, released a statement responding to the new Emissions Gap report from the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP), which warned that global temperatures are on track to rise as much as 3.2degC by the end of the century.

"The most urgent task for policymakers, political leaders, and the global climate justice movement is to demand solutions that cut off the supply of fossil fuels at their source," said Jones. "We have no time left to waste on neoliberal market tweaks that only seek to saddle working families with paying the costs of climate action."

"The urgent, necessary solution is to stop the supply of fossil fuels by banning fracking and all other forms of fossil fuel drilling," he added. "Climate policy proposals that do not squarely confront the issue of supply are not making a serious attempt to avert catastrophe."

Jones' comments on the latest U.N. report echoed recent reactions from experts and climate campaigners to the Greenhouse Gas Bulletin published Monday by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) as well as The Production Gap report published last week by UNEP and leading research institutions.

The latter report found that, based on the goals of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, "governments are planning to produce about 50% more fossil fuels by 2030 than would be consistent with a 2degC pathway and 120% more than would be consistent with a 1.5degC pathway."

In response to UNEP's findings last week, Leah Stokes, a climate researcher and professor at University of California, Santa Barbara, tweeted, "We must start grappling with the supply side and start keep fossil fuels in the ground!"

The U.N. Environmental Program messaging erroneously stated global temperatures are on track to rise as much as 3.9degC by the end of the century. The accurate figure is 3.2degC. This post has been corrected.