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Climate Action Is In the Air
Leaders are responding because the public demand for action is undeniable.
Jun 11, 2015
The following remarks were made at the conclusion of the UN climate talks, which formally concluded in Bonn, Germany, on Thursday.
This week -- and the past few months -- have seen an incredible surge of momentum for climate action around the world. Climate action is in the air.
"Much more work to be done, but change is going to come."
People, businesses, faith communities, and even some politicians, are showing that they are ready to turn away from fossil fuels and towards a 100% renewable energy future.I have a three-page list of accomplishments from outside this process, but since there's limited time, let me share just a few highlights.
First, the fossil fuel divestment campaign is on a winning streak.
Last week, Norway's $890 billion dollar government pension fund sold close to $9 billion worth of coal investments. In the last month, Oxford University, Edinburgh University, Georgetown University, the insurance company AXA and more, have also made divestment commitments with banks like Credit Agricole refusing to finance new coal. And campaigns continue to grow at hundreds more institutions around the world.
Businesses are also moving their money in the right direction. IKEA recently pledged EUR1 billion euro of climate finance. No offense to rich countries, but if a furniture store is making a EUR1 billion euro commitment, you could probably up your game.
Some politicians do seem to be getting the message. The mountain air must have been invigorating, because this week the G7 leaders announced an end to the fossil fuel age, agreeing to decarbonize the global economy and transform their energy sectors. While these long-term goals are promising, short-term action is still grossly lacking. In the real world, the only way to match that rhetoric will be for the G7 to start leaving fossil fuels in the ground, while providing the finance and support for others to do the same.
Let's look at the road map to get to this fossil-free destination.
Leaders are responding because the public demand for action is undeniable. New data from World Wide Views show that 80% of people around the world are very concerned about climate change. And 68% of citizens think tackling climate change will improve their quality of life. Also, according to a report by the International Trade Union Confederation - 9 out of 10 people want to see leaders take climate action.
That demand will only grow louder over the months ahead.
Just next week, we will welcome the Pope's climate encyclical, which we expect to issue a clear moral call for action. Soon after, the medical community will weigh in on the health impacts of climate change with the new Lancet commission report.
And the people will keep marching: mobilizations are planned across Europe and around the world. Just this morning, activists with the German group Ende Gelande hosted an action training outside this conference center to prepare for a mass protest of the Rhineland coal mines, the largest source of CO2 emissions in Europe, located just 40km from here in Bonn.
All these actions should send shivers down the spines of the fossil fuel industry. Much more work to be done, but change is going to come. In many places it already has.
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With 2degC Target Falling Swiftly Out of Sight, Inaction on Climate a 'Crime Against Humanity'
With commitments failing to keep pace with soaring temperatures, dire warnings as climate negotiators meet in Bonn in preparation for Paris summit
Jun 07, 2015
International climate talks continue, but it is the action (or lack thereof) that humanity needs to worry about.
"By ignoring the need to prevent a breach of the 2C tipping point, the point beyond which scientists cannot predict the sheer scale of [climate] impacts... Paris will go down in infamy as the scene of a modern-day crime against humanity."
--Asad Rehman, Friends of the Earth
As representatives from nearly all the world's nations meet in Bonn, Germany, this week to build a framework for a final deal that can be signed at the UN climate summit in Paris later this year, voices from the least developed countries and members of civil society are warning that the major powers are still offering far too little in the way of meaningful action.
According to the sharpest critics of the largest polluting nations—including the U.S., Canada, China, and the European Union—a continued failure to make bold and enforceable reductions of greenhouse gas emissions should be considered nothing less than a "crime against humanity."
As observers describe progress at the talks in Bonn as moving at a snail's pace, the attempt to forge a meaningful agreement for Paris appears to be slipping quickly through the fingers of world leaders.
As the Guardianreports on Sunday:
With little negotiating time left ahead of the UN climate summit in Paris later this year, diplomats from nearly 200 countries meeting in Bonn have reportedly made little progress, raising the possibility of a last-minute diplomatic fiasco, as happened in Copenhagen in 2009.
The mistrust between countries that built up in Copenhagen now threatens the Paris talks, said Tosi Mpanu-Mpanu of the Democratic Republic of Congo, who is chairman of the 48-strong least-developed countries group. "The [UN] process is flawed by a complete lack of trust and confidence between rich and poor countries," he said. "We need time. Because of this lack of trust we have no other way of proceeding. We have to go ahead with baby steps. We are not making much progress, but we are going in the right direction. There are so many issues. It's a process of attrition.
"Every year there is a watering down of the commitments. It feels every year that we are losing out. Twenty countries contribute 80% of emissions, the rest 20%. Yet we in Africa are being asked to cut emissions. OK, we say, but help us. Give us finance, technology."
Concern is growing that rich countries, which have together pledged to mobilize $100bn a year to help countries adapt to climate change, are so far unwilling to discuss how the money will be raised, said Martin Khor, director of the South Center, a leading intergovernmental thinktank of developing countries. "The developing countries are disappointed that there seems to be little hope that the $100bn will materialize. They have no idea what will be available, so they cannot plan ahead. If countries really wanted a [strong] deal, they would be talking about finance by now," said Khor.
Last week, just ahead of the talks, Reutersspoke with several experts who said the mood behind closed doors was somber as many admit privately that the agreed target of the UN-member states of limiting global temperature increases this century to no more than 2degC (2 degrees Celsius or 2C) is simply no longer attainable given the level of commitments currently on the table.
"It's just not feasible," Oliver Geden, of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, told Reuters in discussion of the target. "Two degrees is a focal point for the climate debate but it doesn't seem to be a focal point for political action."
And David Victor, a professor of international relations at the University of California, San Diego, told the news agency that he predicts the 2C goal will slip away despite the public assurances by negotiators and other government officials that it is still alive. For the idea of holding temperatures below 2C, said Victor, "Paris will be a funeral without a corpse."
In an exchange with Common Dreams, however, Asad Rehman, head of the international climate campaign for Friends of the Earth, said the talks in Paris might well be considered a funeral but disputed the idea that there are no dead bodies involved.
"Breaching the 2C target is not a 'funeral without a corpse,'" Rehman explained, because "the corpses already have names and faces and are from every corner of the world - they are dying in their thousands from heat in India, as we speak. The more the reality of climate change impacts people's lives in every corner of the world, the more scientists warn us of the dangers of failing to act, the greater the reluctance of political leaders to act. Rich country leaders are playing Russian roulette with all of our futures for the sake of short-term economic interests."
He added, "By ignoring the need to prevent a breach of the 2C tipping point, the point beyond which scientists are unable to predict the sheer scale of impacts on our food production, our homes and our lives, politicians will effectively signing the death sentence for millions. Paris will go down in infamy as the scene of a modern-day crime against humanity."
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that on current emissions trends, the planet is now on target for a temperature increase of 4.8C or more by 2100 -- a level of warming that would drive dramatic increases in hunger, extreme weather, species loss, and waves of climate-fueled migrations of tens of millions of people.
In order to even come close to meeting the 2C target, the IPCC has said that global annual carbon emissions must fall by 40 to 70 percent by 2050 compared to 2010 levels - and to zero or below by 2100. Currently, governments are not even close to such commitments.
According to Alix Mazounie, a French activist with the Climate Action Network (CAN), who spoke with Agence France-Presse over the weekend, "If countries really want to show that they are moving out of fossil fuels, as the IPCC recommends, they have to set a target for 2050 and a deadline for reaching zero emissions."
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Tens of Thousands March Against Global Elites Ahead of G7
'The representatives of the richest and most powerful countries in the world lay claim to decide the fate of the entire world, without having any legitimation for this'
Jun 04, 2015
As representatives of some of the most powerful countries in the world prepare to gather for their annual Group of Seven (G7) meeting, this time at a castle in the German town of Elmau, tens of thousands marched through nearby Munich on Thursday to protest the summit's politics of "neo-liberal economic policies, war and militarization, exploitation, poverty and hunger, environmental degradation, and the closing-off towards refugees."
Over 34,000 people reportedly turned out for Thursday's march, with one demonstrator identified as Julia by Euronewsdeclaring "we must not lose hope that one day the world really will be equal, and we will all have the same values."
The massive protest is just one of many mobilizations, including alternative summits and direct actions, in the lead-up to the gathering of global elites, which will take place June 7 and 8. Government representatives of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States will formally take part.
The annual meeting of global powers has long been the target of demonstrations for global justice.
"The representatives of the richest and most powerful countries in the world lay claim to decide the fate of the entire world, without having any legitimation for this," reads a statement from Stop G7 Elmau 2015. "Therefore, we fight alongside the Blockupy movement, the anti-war movement, the anti-racist movement, the struggle for better living and working conditions, and the protests against environmental degradation."
\u201c"Refugees Welcome.... #TTIP not" #G7Demo https://t.co/I9FjKnSwBY #G7-#Protest in #M\u00fcnchen #Munich #Migrants #Refugee\u201d— @Muschelschloss@mastodon.social \ud83c\udf3f (@@Muschelschloss@mastodon.social \ud83c\udf3f) 1433431660
This year, protesters are calling particular attention to corporate-friendly trade agreements such as the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), wars and militarism, inhumane policies towards migrants and refugees, the climate crisis, austerity, and mass surveillance.
The G7 summit has been criticized for what many say are repressive "security" measures, including border checks, the deployment of nearly 20,000 police, and a wire fence surrounding Elmau Castle, the luxury resort where the meeting will take place. Some say this heavy militarization has turned the G7 summit location into a "fortress."
\u201cFull crowd shot that still goes back 5 blocks of people protesting the #g7 in #Munich today\u201d— Luke Rudkowski (@Luke Rudkowski) 1433430288
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