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The Progressive

NewsWire

A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release

IPCC Report Is Reality Check; But False Solutions Must Be Rejected

Statement by Global Justice Ecology Project

WASHINGTON

"Today, on the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, the UN Intergovernmental Report on Climate Change (IPCC) released a press release announcing the publication of their new Sixth Assessment Report. The document is the scientific consensus on the state of climate change, created by 234 authors from 66 countries. The need for consensus means that while the report is predictably dire, it is also conservative in its findings.

"Previously, the IPCC declared that a fundamental systemic transformation was crucial if we were to address climate change and have a livable future.

"This report echoes these sentiments. 'This report is a reality check,' said IPCC Working Group I Co-Chair Valerie Masson-Delmotte. 'We now have a much clearer picture of the past, present and future climate, which is essential for understanding where we are headed, what can be done, and how we can prepare.'

"Unfortunately, the report was written under the baseless premise that our so-called world leaders will solve the problem for us-specifically referencing the upcoming UN Climate Conference (COP26) this November in Glasgow.

"GJEP attended, analyzed and mobilized around UN Climate COPs beginning in 2004 and ending ten years ago in 2011 when GJEP ED Anne Petermann was barred from attending future COPs following three years of unpermitted protests organized by GJEP and others at the Climate COPs, and culminating in a direct action during a youth occupation in the hallway outside of the negotiations. GJEP decided that no good would ever come of these climate COPs. The 2015 UN "Paris Agreement", with its voluntary and utterly inadequate targets only served to strengthen this analysis.

"in fact, The Paris Agreement has only gotten worse, now looking to corporate controlled and profit-oriented false solutions as the best way forward. This focus is highlighted in the last sentence which concludes the IPCC's press release: 'Stabilizing the climate will require strong, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and reaching net zero CO2 emissions. Limiting other greenhouse gases and air pollutants, especially methane, could have benefits both for health and the climate,' said Zhai.

"The inclusion of the term 'net zero' in an otherwise sensible paragraph undermines the entire point the IPCC appears to be trying to make. To learn more about this, check out several excellent reports on the Net Zero scam we have published on our website.

"Global Justice Ecology Project's new Breaking Green podcast also analyzes the Net Zero and other climate false solution schemes in its first two episodes.

"As La Via Campesina, the global peasant's movement points out, along with indigenous peoples' groups and ally groups from around the world, we do not need high-tech new approaches to solve climate change. There are thousands of existing real-world solutions being practiced already in communities all over the planet. These solutions must be lifted up and those of us in so-called "developed countries" can learn from these solutions to create paths forward in our own communities.

"We cannot wait for our 'leaders' to solve the problem for us."

What differentiates Global Justice Ecology Project from most groups is our holistic approach to organizing. We believe that the compartmentalization of issues is enabling corporations and conservative forces to keep movements for change divided and powerless. We strive to identify and address the common roots to the issues of social injustice, ecological destruction and economic domination as a means to achieve a fundamental transformation toward a society based on egalitarian ideals and grounded in ecology.