April, 04 2022, 11:08am EDT
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New IPCC Report Finds Sharp Cuts in Fossil Fuels and Emissions Urgently Needed, Policymakers' Failures Putting Climate Goals at Risk
Statements by Drs. Rachel Cleetus, Kristina Dahl at the Union of Concerned Scientists
WASHINGTON
Following a virtual session, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) today released the third part of its Sixth Assessment Report, which focuses on mitigating climate change and assesses options for reducing global warming emissions and removing them from the atmosphere. It also builds on the first and second parts of the assessment, which covered the physical science basis for climate change and climate change impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability, respectively. Complementing the report is a summary document for policymakers that has been endorsed by governments.
This report is the result of several years of hard work by scientists from around the world, drawing on an exhaustive foundation of peer-reviewed scientific literature in a process that demands intensive scrutiny and consensus. Among its main findings, the IPCC's Working Group III emphasized emissions must be cut sharply within this decade and decline to net zero by roughly 2050 to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, in line with the Paris Agreement. Such an endeavor requires transformative shifts across the economy and society, including ramping up energy efficiency, a complete transition to renewable energy to power homes and businesses, widespread electrification of vehicles, and increased conservation of forests and lands. In addition to the usual information past IPCC reports have covered, the latest iteration increases the inclusion of social science analyses; examines how mounting climate litigation could further climate action; and highlights the growing roles of cities, states, Indigenous Peoples, youth, and businesses in demanding and driving efforts to rein in global warming emissions.
Below is a statement by Dr. Kristina Dahl, a principal climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).
"The very first IPCC report found that limiting climate change and its resulting impacts would require nations to cut the majority of their heat-trapping emissions. Thirty-two subsequent years of inaction by policymakers and obstruction by the fossil fuel industry has led us in the opposite direction. This latest IPCC report finds that global emissions are now 54% higher than they were in 1990 and starkly points out that from 2010 to 2019, heat-trapping emissions were higher than ever and are still rising globally across all major sectors.
"To keep the principal goal of the Paris Agreement within reach, countries will need to strengthen their national pledges and decrease global heat-trapping emissions by roughly 40% relative to 2019 levels within this decade. Because we have failed to rein in global warming emissions to date, the choices available to us are no longer ideal. In addition to deep, absolute cuts in heat-trapping emissions, some amount of these emissions will also need to be removed from the atmosphere if nations are to limit planetary warming to 1.5 degrees or even 2 degrees Celsius. Most emissions removal options, however, come with substantial, and in some cases untenable, tradeoffs. On the other hand, surpassing the 1.5-degree Celsius threshold would lead to catastrophic climate impacts--with some so extreme adapting will no longer be feasible--as well as significant loss of life, property, and ecosystems in the United States and around the world. The science of climate change, its consequences, and the solutions to it could not be clearer. The ball is now in the court of world leaders and policymakers, who must act with the utmost urgency to address the global climate crisis."
Below is a statement by Dr. Rachel Cleetus, the policy director and lead economist for the Climate and Energy Program at UCS and an official civil society observer to the IPCC Working Group III process.
"This latest IPCC report puts policymakers on notice, yet again, that the current global trajectory of heat-trapping emissions is alarmingly off-track. Their continued inaction is directly responsible for the climate crisis already here, and it has also placed the goals of the Paris Agreement at grave risk. The solutions are obvious and have been for a long time--the world needs to rapidly phase out fossil fuels and accelerate the shift to clean energy. Richer nations, including the United States, bear significant responsibility for action because of their outsize contribution to global warming emissions.
"Fossil fuels are the root cause of climate change, of environmental injustices and--as we are witnessing in Ukraine right now--frequently associated with geopolitical strife and conflict. Transformative changes in how we get and use energy are entirely within our grasp as the costs of wind and solar power, as well as battery storage, tumble while innovation soars. What's urgently needed are robust policies and investments to cut heat-trapping emissions across every sector of the economy by scaling up energy efficiency, renewable energy, clean transportation, and electrification; protecting and restoring forests, soils and ecosystems; and investing in a just transition for communities and workers dependent on fossil fuels.
"Richer nations must also provide funding for low-income countries to make a clean energy transition aligned with sustainable development, yet those financial flows have been significantly lagging. Additionally, public and private financing for fossil fuels still exceed those for addressing climate change. The increased interest in climate litigation also signals the importance of holding fossil fuel companies accountable for the climate damages for which they are responsible.
"Decades of failure in global leadership, combined with fossil fuel companies' single-minded focus on their profits and unsustainable patterns of consumption within the world's richest households, are putting our planet at peril. Continuing down the current path leaves us poised to exceed 1.5 and even 2 degrees Celsius of warming. Every year policymakers choose to selfishly delay action from here on out is a testament to their lack of courage, which future generations will not soon forget. Instead, let's seize this precious, narrow window of opportunity to secure a safer, healthier and more just world."
If you would like to talk with Dr. Cleetus, Dr. Dahl, or another UCS expert on any of the three latest IPCC reports, please contact UCS Climate and Energy Media Manager Ashley Siefert Nunes.
Additional Resources:
- A UCS statement on part one (WGI) of the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report.
- A UCS statement on part two (WGII) of the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report.
- A recent blog post by Dr. Cleetus on the need for world leaders and policymakers to address crises happening simultaneously--such as the war in Ukraine and climate change--given a recent IPCC report says such crises will continue to intersect and overlap in the years ahead.
- A 2021 UCS report that offers a transformative framework to ensure a people-centered approach for transitioning the United States to a clean energy economy.
The Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world. UCS combines independent scientific research and citizen action to develop innovative, practical solutions and to secure responsible changes in government policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices.
LATEST NEWS
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One group said it has registered over 100,000 new voters since U.S. President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race.
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The group behind a popular get-out-the-vote technology platform said Friday that it's registered more than 100,000 new U.S. voters since President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race, a surge that came amid mounting Republican efforts to make it harder to register and vote.
Vote.org said that 84% of voters registered in the new wave are under age 35. Nearly 1 in 5 new registrees is 18 years old. Andrea Hailey, the group's CEO, said that "since 2020, we have led the largest voter registration drive in U.S. history," with more than 7.8 million people registered.
After dropping out, Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to face former Republican President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) in the November election. The new presumptive Democratic candidate has already earned endorsements from many Democrats in Congress and groups advocating on issues including climate, labor, and reproductive rights.
Vote.org's success comes as Republicans at the federal level are proposing and passing legislation creating obstacles to the ballot box.
Earlier this month, U.S. House Republicans passed Rep. Chip Roy's (R-Texas)
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However, Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.)
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Lee said the SAVE Act underscores the need to pass her recently introduced Right to Vote Act, "which would establish the first-ever affirmative federal voting rights guarantee, ensuring every citizen may exercise their fundamental right to cast a ballot."
Earlier this year, U.S. Senate Democrats also reintroduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, legislation its sponsors say will "update and restore critical safeguards of the original Voting Rights Act."
Meanwhile, Republican-controlled state legislatures and red-state governors are enacting laws imposing tough restrictions on voter registration, with violations punishable by stiff fines that critics say are meant to dissuade people from registration drives and similar efforts.
Again under the guise of preventing fraud, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last year signed legislation limiting voter registration drives, with fines of up to $250,000 for violators.
"These draconian laws and rules are like taking a sledgehammer to hit a flea," Cecile Scoon, an attorney and president of the Florida chapter of the League of Women Voters,
toldThe New York Times in an article published Friday.
Three years after Kansas passed a law making "false representation" of an election official a crime, campaigners say it's become extremely difficult to sign up new voters.
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In Louisiana, Republican state lawmakers quietly passed legislation making it easier for election officials to toss out absentee ballots with missing details, limiting how people can mail in other voters' ballots, and restricting the ability to assist people with disabilities with their ballots.
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In Nebraska, Republican Secretary of State Bob Evnen last week
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Climate and environmental defenders on this week implored U.S. senators to block a permitting reform bill introduced this week by Sens. Joe Manchin and John Barrasso that campaigners linked to Project 2025, a conservative coalition's agenda for a far-right overhaul of the federal government.
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"This dangerous bill doesn't deserve a floor vote."
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Hartl added that "to preserve a livable planet," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) "must squash this legislation now."
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NRDC managing director of government affairs Alexandra Adams said Wednesday that "this bill is a giveaway for the oil and gas industry that will ramp up drilling and environmental destruction at a time when we need to be putting a hard stop to fossil fuels."
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Sudan's military is blocking United Nations aid trucks from entering at a key border crossing, causing severe disruptions in aid in a country that experts fear may be on the brink of one of the worst famines the world has seen in decades, The New York Timesreported Friday.
The border city of Adré in eastern Chad is the main international crossing into the Darfur region of Sudan, but the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), the state's official military, which is engaged in a civil war with a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has refused to issue permits for U.N. trucks to enter there, as it's an RSF-controlled area.
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Last week, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States ambassador to the U.N., said that the SAF's obstruction of the border was "completely unacceptable."
Both warring parties in Sudan continue to perpetrate brazen atrocities, including starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. This piece focuses on the SAF's ongoing obstruction of essential aid. The situation is catastrophic. The policy is criminal. https://t.co/FKhqQh3EI9.
— Tom Dannenbaum (@tomdannenbaum) July 26, 2024
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