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	World leaders need to prioritize humanitarian funding as acute hunger hits record levels by WFP, ActionAid, Oxfam, agencies   World leaders need to prioritize humanitarian funding as acute hunger hits record levels   As needs skyrocket globally, the World Food Programme (WFP) is urging donor governments to prioritize funding for humanitarian operations.   WFP is in the midst of a crippling funding crisis that is forcing the organization to scale back life-saving assistance at a time when acute hunger is at record levels. Almost half of WFP country operations have already cut - or plan to cut soon - the size and scope of food, cash and nutrition assistance programmes.   UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths on skyrocketing humanitarian needs and the fact that donor funding is not keeping pace.   “It is a cruel reality that in many humanitarian operations, aid agencies are scraping along with very little funding right at a time when people’s needs compel them to scale up.. 250 million people affected by conflict, natural disasters, the impact of the climate crisis, displacement and other crises have received less than 30 per cent of the humanitarian funding required to address their urgent needs. We need donors to step up".   http://www.wfp.org/publications/wfp-global-operational-response-plan-update-9-november-2023 http://news.un.org/en/story/2023/09/1140662 http://reliefweb.int/report/world/new-wfp-analysis-shows-every-1-cut-food-assistance-pushes-400000-people-emergency-hunger   World leaders need to prioritize humanitarian funding as acute hunger hits record levels, by Carl Skau - Deputy executive director of the World Food Program   The United Nations World Food Program has been forced to cut food, cash payments and assistance to millions of people in many countries because of “a crippling funding crisis” that has seen its donations fall by about half as acute hunger is hitting record levels.   Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Program, told a news conference that at least 38 of the 86 countries where WFP operates have already seen cuts or plan to cut assistance soon — including Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and West Africa.   He said humanitarian needs were “going through the roof” in 2021 and 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine and its global implications. “Those needs continue to grow, those drivers are still there,” he said, “but the funding is drying up. So we’re looking at 2024 being even more dire.”   “The largest food and nutrition crisis in history today persists,” Skau said. “This year, 345 million people continue to be acutely food insecure while hundreds of millions of people are at risk of worsening hunger.”   Carl Skau said conflict and insecurity remain the primary drivers of acute hunger around the world, along with climate change, unrelenting natural disasters, persistent food price inflation and mounting debt stress — all during a slowdown in the global economy.   He called on donors to “step up and support us through this very difficult time.”   Mr. Skau said that in March, WFP was forced to cut rations from 75% to 50% for communities in Afghanistan facing emergency levels of hunger, and in May it was forced to cut food for 8 million people — 66% of the people it was assisting. Now, it is helping just 5 million people, he said.   In Syria, 5.5 million people who relied on WFP for food were already on 50% rations, Skau said, and in July the agency cut all rations to 2.5 million of them. In the Palestinian territories, WFP cut its cash assistance by 20% in May and in June. It cut its caseload by 60%. And in Yemen, he said, a huge funding gap will force WFP to cut aid to 7 million people as early as August.   In West Africa, where acute hunger is on the rise, Skau said, most countries are facing extensive ration cuts, particularly WFP’s seven largest crisis operations: Burkina Faso, Mali, Chad, Central African Republic, Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon.   He said cutting aid to people who are only at the hunger level of crisis to help save those literally starving or in the category of catastrophic hunger means that those dropped will rapidly fall into the emergency and catastrophe categories, “and so we will have an additional humanitarian emergency on our hands down the road.”   “Ration cuts are clearly not the way to go forward,” Skau said.   He urged world leaders to prioritize humanitarian funding and invest in long-tern solutions to conflicts, poverty, development and other root causes of the current crisis.   July 2023   Big business’ windfall profits rocket to “obscene” $1 trillion a year amid cost-of-living crisis; Oxfam and ActionAid renew call for windfall taxes.   A windfall tax could generate $941 billion —money that now could be used to tackle poverty and climate change. While profits soared, one billion workers across 50 countries took a $746 billion real-term pay cut in 2022. Oxfam and ActionAid are calling for permanent windfall taxes on windfall profits across all sectors.   722 of the world’s biggest corporations together raked in over $1 trillion in windfall profits each year for the past two years amid soaring prices and interest rates, while billions of people are having to cut back or go hungry.   Analysis by Oxfam and ActionAid of Forbes’ “Global 2000” ranking shows they made $1.09 trillion in windfall profits in 2021 and $1.1 trillion in 2022, with an 89 percent jump in total profits compared to average total profits in 2017-2020.   For this analysis, windfall profits are defined as those exceeding average profits in 2017-2020 by more than ten percent.   45 energy corporations made on average $237 billion a year in windfall profits in 2021 and 2022.   Governments could have increased global investments in renewable energy by 31 percent had they taxed at 90 percent the massive windfall profits that oil and gas producers funneled to their rich shareholders last year.   There are now 96 energy billionaires with a combined wealth of nearly $432 billion ($50 billion more than in April last year).   Food and beverage corporations, banks, Big Pharma, and major retailers also cashed in on the cost-of-living crisis that has seen more than a quarter of a billion people in 58 countries hit by acute food insecurity in 2022.   Extreme wealth and extreme poverty have increased simultaneously for the first time in 25 years.   18 food and beverage corporations made on average about $14 billion a year in windfall profits in 2021 and 2022, enough to cover the $6.4 billion funding gap needed to deliver life-saving food assistance in East Africa more than twice over.   Oxfam estimates that one person is likely to die of hunger every 28 seconds across Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan. Global food prices rose more than 14 percent in 2022.   28 drug corporations made on average $47 billion a year in windfall profits, and 42 major retailers and supermarkets made on average $28 billion a year in windfall profits.   Nine aerospace and defense corporations raked in on average $8 billion a year in windfall profits even as 9,000 people die every day from hunger, much of that driven by conflict and war.   “People are sick and tired of corporate greed. It’s obscene that corporations have raked in billions of dollars in extraordinary windfall profits while people everywhere are struggling to afford enough food or basics like medicine and heating,” said Oxfam International interim Executive Director Amitabh Behar.   “Big business is gaslighting us all —they’re hiking prices to make monster profits, plundering people under the cover of a polycrisis.”   “A few increasingly dominant corporations are monopolizing markets and setting prices sky-high to line the pockets of their rich shareholders. Big Pharma, energy giants and big supermarket chains shamelessly fattened their profit margins throughout both the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis. Most worryingly —in the absence of regulation, including progressive taxation— governments have invited this,” Behar said.   There is a growing body of evidence that corporate profiteering is playing a significant role in supercharging inflation, echoing fears that corporations are exploiting the cost-of-living crisis to boost profits margins —a trend dubbed “greedflation” and “excuseflation”.   Christine Lagarde, the President of the European Central Bank, suggested in May that corporations are engaging in “greedflation”, while the IMF last week published a study showing that corporate profits account for nearly half the increase in Europe’s inflation over the past two years.   Huge corporate profits have coincided with the degradation of pay and conditions for workers. Oxfam estimates that top-paid CEOs across four countries enjoyed a real-term 9 percent pay hike in 2022, while workers’ wages fell by 3 percent.   One billion workers in 50 countries took an average pay cut of $685 in 2022, a collective loss of $746 billion in real wages compared to if wages had kept up with inflation.   Oxfam and ActionAid are calling on governments to claw back gains driven by profiteering. A tax of 50 to 90 percent on the windfall profits of 722 mega-corporations could generate between $523 billion and $941 billion both for 2021 and 2022.   This is money that could be used to help people struggling with hunger, rising energy bills and poverty in rich countries, and to provide hundreds of billions of dollars to support countries in the Global South.   For example: An injection of $400 billion into the fund for loss and damage agreed to at COP27 last year. Loss and damage finance needs are urgent, with estimates saying that low- and middle-income countries could face costs of up to $580 billion annually by 2030.   UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called on rich countries to impose windfall taxes on fossil fuel companies and redirect the money to vulnerable countries suffering worsening losses from the climate crisis.   Cover the financing gap ($440 billion) to provide universal social protection coverage and healthcare to more than 3.5 billion people living in low- and lower- middle-income countries, and the financing gap ($148 billion) to provide universal access to pre-primary, primary and secondary education in these same countries. This would support the hiring of millions of new teachers, nurses and healthcare workers across the Global South.   “Enough is enough. Government policy should not allow mega-corporations and billionaires to profiteer from people’s pain. Governments must tax windfall profits of corporations across all sectors —and invest that money back in helping people and deterring future profiteering. They must put the interests of their great majorities ahead of the greed of a privileged few,” said ActionAid Secretary-General Arthur Larok.   “Taxing windfall profits is smart economic policy —it’s a very clear and direct source of money for development and tackling climate change. Piling more loans onto poorer countries is what makes absolutely no sense when debt is accelerating the climate crisis”.   http://actionaid.org/news/2023/big-business-windfall-profits-rocket-obscene-1-trillion-year-amid-cost-living-crisis http://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/millionaires-economists-and-eminent-politicians-implore-g20-tax-super-rich http://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/621477/bp-survival-of-the-richest-160123-en.pdf http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/inequality-source-of-lost-confidence-in-liberal-democracy-by-joseph-e-stiglitz-2023-08 Visit the related web page
	The right to live in a healthy environment is a human right by IPCC, HRW, Amnesty, agencies   Nov. 2023   Agreement at COP28 to phase out fossil fuels is vital to prevent climate & human rights catastrophe. (Amnesty International, agencies)   An agreement at the COP28 summit to end the production and use of fossil fuels is vital to prevent a global climate catastrophe and stop an unprecedented human rights crisis which threatens the rights of billions of people from escalating, Amnesty International said today.   In a briefing titled, Fatal Fuels, Amnesty International calls for parties at COP28, which starts later this month, to agree to a full, fair, fast and funded phase out of fossil fuels and a human rights compliant transition to renewable power which facilitates access to energy for all.   “For decades the fossil fuel industry has spread disinformation about the climate crisis. The truth is that fossil fuels are endangering our future by wreaking havoc on the global climate and creating a human rights crisis of unprecedented scale,” said Candy Ofime, Amnesty International’s Legal Advisor on Climate Justice.   “If new fossil fuel projects go ahead we will fail to limit global warming this century to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and stave off catastrophic climate damage. COP28 is the time for states to agree to move beyond the fossil fuel era and leave behind its shameful record of climate damage and human rights abuses.   “The fossil fuel industry generates enormous wealth for relatively few corporate actors and states, which have a vested interest in blocking a just transition to renewable energy, and silencing opponents. These efforts endanger everyone’s right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.   “Fossil fuels are finite and trying to extract every last drop of oil, cubic foot of fossil gas, or tonne of coal prolongs and worsens the enormous damage they have already caused. Alternatives are at hand and renewable energy output is growing fast but much more investment is needed. COP28 must set a fast and equitable course for a sustainable future free of fossil fuels.”   The extraction and burning of fossil fuels, and the resultant accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, notably carbon dioxide, is the primary cause of global heating which is making extreme weather events such as storms, drought and floods more frequent and intense.   This is leading to loss of life, damage to property and infrastructure, wrecked livelihoods, disrupted ecosystems and reduced biodiversity, failed harvests and food scarcity, intensified competition for resources, and conflict and displacement, which are all associated with a range of human rights abuses.   Air pollution directly related to the combustion of fossil fuels contributed to 1.2 million deaths in 2020. Communities living near fossil fuel facilities are often directly harmed by pollutants known to cause respiratory illnesses, adverse pregnancy outcomes, cardiovascular disease and certain cancers.   Coal mining and fracking generate toxic waste that can contaminate water sources. Gas flaring releases toxic air pollutants. People living in “sacrifice zones” most exposed to these harms are often already subject to intersecting forms of discrimination.   Exploration, production and transportation of fossil fuels often entails devastating pollution and environmental degradation.   Amnesty International has for decades documented oil spills and the resultant harms suffered by communities in the Niger Delta where Shell and other companies have undermined local communities’ human rights to an adequate standard of living, clean water, and health, and denied them effective remedies.   Indigenous peoples are disproportionately impacted because much of the planet’s remaining fossil fuel resources are situated under their ancestral land, and exploitative companies often infringe on these communities’ rights to information, public participation and free, prior and informed consent.   For example, Amnesty International has shown how Adivasi communities in India affected by coal mining are rarely properly consulted before their land is acquired, ecosystems decimated and livelihoods jeopardized.   The right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment was recognized by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021 and the UN General Assembly in 2022 and is enshrined in the national constitutions of more than 100 countries. The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights explicitly recognize that companies have a responsibility to “do no harm”.   Environmental human rights defenders, including those opposed to the production and use of fossil fuels, have increasingly been targeted and even killed for their advocacy in recent years. Some fossil fuel companies have sought to silence climate defenders through the use of so-called “strategic lawsuits against public participation” (SLAPPs).   Fossil fuel companies have funded think tanks to draft and propose laws to clamp down on or criminalize climate and environmental protesters. Amnesty International campaigns to protect the right to protest, and the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.   Many fossil fuel companies seek to shape public opinion through greenwashing and disinformation, evade regulation through the lobbying of lawmakers and regulators, and influence multilateral forums such as COPs, which can delay states’ actions to address the climate crisis. COP28 is chaired by Sultan Al Jaber, the chief executive of the UAE’s state oil company, which is a clear conflict of interests.   Fatal Fuels recommends that all currently untapped fossil fuel resources remain in the ground forever. Industrialized and other high greenhouse gas emitting countries in the G20, as well as high income fossil fuel producing states, must agree to quickly lead the way by stopping the expansion of oil, gas and coal production. Others must then follow. In addition, there must be a significant reduction in the extraction of fossil fuels for non-energy purposes, such as the manufacturing of plastics.   The vast subsidies states spend supporting fossil fuel use and production must end through a process which ensures there are adequate social protections in place to shield the poorest and most marginalized.   Fossil fuel and energy companies cannot be allowed to rely on unproven technologies, such as carbon capture and storage, which their lobbyists frequently promote, to delay change. They should refrain from lobbying lawmakers, and greenwashing, which makes it more difficult for the public to access accurate information about climate science.   Financial institutions must cease investing in new activities that drive fossil fuel expansion, and phase out existing funding on a timeframe aligned with the target agreed internationally to keep global warming to below 1.5°C this century.   Developed countries, historically the largest emitters of greenhouse gases, need to deliver on their commitments to provide adequate climate finance to developing states to achieve an equitable and human rights-consistent phase out of existing fossil fuel production globally, facilitating a just transition to renewable sources of power.   * The COP28 climate summit runs from 30 November to 12 December and is being held in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), one of the world’s largest oil and gas producers.   http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/11/global-agreement-at-cop28-to-phase-out-fossil-fuels-is-vital-to-prevent-a-climate-and-human-rights-catastrophe/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/11/fossils-fuels-heart-planetary-environmental-crisis-un-experts http://climateanalytics.org/press-releases/oil-and-gas-majors-could-have-paid-for-their-share-of-climate-loss-and-damage-and-still-earned-10-trillion-usd-new-report http://www.ciel.org/cop28-crucial-crossroads-fossil-fuel-phaseout-human-rights/ http://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/30/united-nations-climate-change-conference-cop28 http://actionaid.org/publications/2023/how-finance-flows-banks-fuelling-climate-crisis http://fossilfueltreaty.org/european-parliament-2023 http://fossilfueltreaty.org http://350.org/press-release/powering-up-for-climate-justice-350-org-launches-report-on-global-renewable-energy-target/ http://www.iisd.org/inside-cop-28 http://www.iisd.org/articles/insight/unpacking-carbon-capture-storage-technology http://www.iisd.org/articles/press-release/world-governments-hit-record-high-usd-17-trillion-fossil-fuel-support   http://www.carbonbombs.org/ http://www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/latest-news/earth2019s-vital-signs-reach-new-record-extremes-in-2023 http://www.msf.org/cop28-more-failure-not-option-vulnerable-communities http://www.lancetcountdown.org/2023-report/ http://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-cycle/ http://tinyurl.com/3v7myx4b http://blog.ucsusa.org/series/cop28/ http://theelders.org/time-now-action-needed-cop28 http://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/global-witness-and-cop28-people-not-polluters/#global-witnesss-cop28-policy-positions http://influencemap.org/ http://billmckibben.substack.com/p/a-corrupted-cop http://climate-reporting.org/stories/ http://priceofoil.org/2023/12/01/ogda/ http://wwf.panda.org/?10193966/COP28-must-rebuild-the-credibility-and-ambition-of-the-global-climate-regime http://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/climate-equality-a-planet-for-the-99-621551/ http://www.care-international.org/resources/seeing-double-decoding-additionality-climate-finance http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-environment/annual-thematic-reports   Oct. 2023   Postponing climate action leads to bigger increases in global temperature rise - Prof. Jim Skea, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)   “What determines global warming is not the timing of net zero, but the pathway by which you get there. It is the cumulative emissions of carbon dioxide over time that are the main factor.   “The longer you put off action, the greater will be the cumulative CO2 emissions that have gone into the atmosphere, and therefore the higher the level of the warming. That’s the global point.”   “Every fraction of a degree matters”, Skea says, emphasising both “urgency and agency” in terms of climate action. “The situation we are in is urgent, we are in dire circumstances. But we can also do something about it if we choose to do so.”   Oct. 2023   Why is the climate crisis also a human rights crisis? (Human Rights Watch)   COP28, the 28th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference, will bring together state parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as well as thousands of experts, journalists, climate activists, community members, and representatives from businesses and nongovernmental groups. It is a forum for states to discuss how to confront the climate crisis that is taking a growing toll on human rights around the globe.   Despite growing urgency, the meetings have largely failed to result in the necessary cuts in greenhouse gas emissions or to adequately support a transition to renewable energy, protecting those hardest hit by floods, drought, hurricanes, and other climate-related disasters. COP28 will be hosted by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from November 30 to December 12, 2023, a source of concern both because of the UAE’s climate-related policies and its human rights record.   Why is the climate crisis also a human rights crisis?   The right to live in a healthy environment is a human right that has been recognized around the world. The climate crisis also affects many human rights, including the right to life and the rights to housing, food, and water.   From burning forests, to sweltering cities, to parched farmlands, to storm-battered coasts, the climate crisis is taking a mounting toll on lives and livelihoods around the globe. Increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere, caused primarily by burning fossil fuels, trap heat with profound consequences. Harm is already being felt, and the speed and scale will increase exponentially and erratically for the foreseeable future.   About 3.5 billion people already live in contexts that are highly vulnerable to climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently warned. By 2050, more than a billion people living on small islands and in low-lying coastal communities and settlements are projected to be at risk from sea level rise and extreme weather.   Climate change aggravates existing social and economic inequalities. Both acute disasters and longer-term changes like multi-year droughts are far worse for low-income and marginalized communities that governments have already failed to protect.   Individuals with intersecting marginalized identities and vulnerabilities can have an even greater chance of dying, increasing poverty, or losing important resources because of climate change. Those affected include people with low incomes, Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, older people, people with disabilities, women and pregnant people, children, and migrant workers. These groups are also most at risk of being left behind when disasters occur. Governments should budget to protect people’s human rights from climate harm.   Yet, the capacity of low- and middle-income governments to fulfill the rights of the most at-risk populations could become severely strained and, in many places, broken.   Governments’ ability to confront the climate crisis will most likely depend, in large measure, on what governments are doing today to uphold the rights of those already experiencing the impact of climate change and to address the underlining industries and economic policies that cause it.   The climate crisis necessitates supporting non-fossil fuel-based economies and political systems that center ending economic marginalization, racism, ableism, ageism, misogyny, and other forms of discrimination.   What is at stake for human rights at COP28?   In March 2023, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s leading authority on climate science, confirmed that the world is warming at record levels and warned that governments are failing to take sufficient action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The panel urged governments to cut emissions by phasing out fossil fuels, halting deforestation, and scaling up renewable energy.   To fulfill their human rights obligation to address climate change, at this year’s COP, governments need to ensure a just and equitable transition to renewable energy and help people adapt to the impact of the climate crisis. They can do that by calling for the equitable and rights-respecting phasing out of all fossil fuels in the COP28 conclusions.   Governments at COP28 should make a commitment not to authorize new fossil fuel projects. In addition, they should end all forms of support, including subsidies and international finance, for oil, gas, and coal developments to rapidly reduce emissions and to limit the impacts of climate change.   Governments should also commit to upholding the rights of communities directly affected by fossil fuel operations, including the people working and living in and around sites of fossil fuel exploration, production, storage, transport, refining, use, and disposal.   Governments should ensure their participation and representation in decision-making on fossil fuel operations and climate change. It is particularly important to ensure participation of groups historically excluded, such as people with disabilities.   Two years ago at COP26 in Glasgow, governments made a commitment to phase down the use of coal. But last year, at COP27 in Egypt, a group of 81 countries made an ultimately unsuccessful push to include the phase out of all fossil fuels in the final text of the outcome document. The push was stymied by Saudi Arabia, other Gulf states ans fossil fuel exporting countries, the Guardian reported.   Why is a fossil fuel phase out necessary to realize human rights?   There is growing consensus, including from the International Energy Agency and the Intergovernmental Panel that for governments to meet global climate targets there cannot be new oil, gas, or coal projects.   Burning of fossil fuels is the primary driver of the climate crisis, accounting for over 80 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, existing fossil fuel projects are already more than the climate can withstand to limit global warming to an increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius required to prevent a global climate collapse.   Nevertheless, governments continue to authorize – and subsidize – building fossil fuel infrastructure and poorly regulate existing operations. The fossil fuel industry deflects public and political pressure on its core operations, most recently by claiming that its operations can become “net zero.”   Why are robust regulations essential to ensure that carbon markets uphold human rights and support effective climate action, and which rules should be adopted at COP28?   COP28 should ensure the global carbon market contemplated under Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement is strictly regulated to uphold rights, support climate action, and provide a remedy for harm. These are vital issues given that state parties to the agreement, corporations, and other private entities are rapidly developing their presence in the market, even while safeguards in most countries range from inadequate to nonexistent.   Carbon markets trade in carbon credits, which are supposed to represent carbon dioxide that has been removed from, or prevented from being emitted into, the atmosphere by projects ranging from forest conservation to clean energy, among others. Many corporations and governments purchase carbon credits to claim they offset their own pollution.   Yet, many carbon credits traded in those markets do not actually represent permanently removed carbon or avoided emissions. These hot air credits undermine climate action when they are used to offset pollution, as no overall emissions reductions actually take place.   Further, some carbon offsetting projects have violated the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities by displacing them from their lands and criminalizing their livelihoods.   http://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/30/united-nations-climate-change-conference-cop28 http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/11/global-agreement-at-cop28-to-phase-out-fossil-fuels-is-vital-to-prevent-a-climate-and-human-rights-catastrophe/ http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/10/global-opec-chiefs-call-for-huge-investment-in-oil-is-a-formula-for-climate-disaster/ http://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/greenhouse-gas-concentrations-hit-record-high-again http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGII_SummaryForPolicymakers.pdf http://reliefweb.int/report/world/climate-changed-child-childrens-climate-risk-index-supplement-enar http://www.unicef.org/climate-action/cop http://www.unicef.org/reports/climate-changed-child http://www.lancetcountdown.org/about-us/interact-with-the-key-findings/ http://www.lancetcountdown.org/2023-report/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/08/urgent-action-states-needed-tackle-climate-change-says-un-committee-guidance   http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/general-comments-and-recommendations/general-comment-no-26-2023-childrens-rights-and http://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2023/08/about-our-human-rights-us-youths-win-landmark-climate-case http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/un-committee-rights-child-calls-states-take-action-first-guidance-childrens-rights http://news.un.org/en/story/2023/08/1140122 http://www.savethechildren.net/news/geneva-landmark-recognition-says-inaction-climate-crisis-child-rights-violation http://childrightsenvironment.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Press-Release_GC26.pdf http://www.rightsoffuturegenerations.org/the-principles http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/document/born-climate-crisis-why-we-must-act-now-secure-childrens-rights/ http://www.unicef.org/media/105376/file/UNICEF-climate-crisis-child-rights-crisis.pdf http://violenceagainstchildren.un.org/climate-crisis   Sep. 2023   Al Gore says the fossil fuel industry has been engaging in “massive fraud” for decades.   The former U.S vice president directly named the fossil fuel industry as core perpetrator of creating - and continuing - the global climate crisis.   “I was one of many who felt for a long time that the fossil fuel companies, or at least many of them, were sincere in saying that they wanted to be a meaningful part of bringing solutions to this crisis,” Mr Gore told the New York Times. “But I think that it’s now clear they are not.”   Mr. Gore noted how the industry has been able to infiltrate the political process at every level including at the United Nations annual climate summit. He said that this year, the UN had gone “too far” in naming Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, as president of Cop28 in the United Arab Emirates this December. As head of Adnoc, Mr. Al Jaber is slated to oversee a massive expansion of oil and gas production.   “The fossil fuel companies, given their record today, are far more effective at capturing politicians than they are at capturing emissions”. Mr. Gore noted the fossil fuel industry spent just 1 per cent of overall profits on the clean energy transition last year.   “It is a ruse,” he said. “And many of the largest companies have engaged in massive fraud. For some decades now, they’ve followed the playbook of the tobacco industry, using these very sophisticated, lavishly-financed strategies for deceiving people.   “I think it’s time to call them out, to tell them to get out of the way, and stop blocking the efforts of everybody else to try to solve this crisis". Despite ever worsening climate impacts Mr. Gore said, “We don’t have time to wallow in despair, we’ve got work to do. We can change this.”   At the UN Climate Ambition Summit, California Governor Gavin Newsom, also called out the fossil fuel industry for its decades of deception. “It’s time for us to be a lot more clear. This climate crisis is a fossil fuel crisis”, he said.   Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados directly laid responsibility for the worsening climate crisis on the fossil fuel industry, noting it had benefited from $7 trillion in subsidies last year. She called out banking and financial institutions for funding the industry fueling the climate crisis.   “If you don’t take corrective action now, you will have to tell us where you’re keeping all your scientific research to relocate you and your families to the planet Mars or Pluto,” Ms Mottley said.   Christiana Figueres, the UN’s former climate chief told reporters fossil fuel companies should not be included in the Cop28 climate summit as they continue to block climate action.   “If they are going to be there only to be obstructors, and only to put spanners into the system, they should not be there”... “I thought fossil fuel firms could change. I was wrong”   Christiana Figueres said oil and gas companies while reaping record profits are rolling back their mediocre climate pledges, pursuing new polluting projects, continually lobbying against climate regulations, fighting back against policies to promote more responsible investing, paying higher dividends to shareholders, lobbying governments to reverse clean energy policies while paying lip service to change.   Bill Hare, CEO and senior scientist at the global institute Climate Analytics: "Shell, BP, Woodside, Total, Exxon, Chevron, Santos, etc. are expanding gas/oil production when this should be reducing. They can only do this because they are enabled by compliant politicians."   http://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/governments-plan-produce-double-fossil-fuels-2030-15degc-warming http://www.unep.org/resources/production-gap-report-2023 http://www.unep.org/resources/adaptation-gap-report-2023 http://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/what-are-uneps-climate-related-gap-reports-and-why-do-they-matter http://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/climate-change-bad-health-climate-services-save-lives http://news.un.org/en/story/2023/09/1140527 http://unfccc.int/documents/631600 http://www.wri.org/news/statement-uns-global-stocktake-report-offers-damning-report-card-global-climate-effort http://www.bond.org.uk/news/2023/11/faith-and-climate-change-engaging-religious-communities-in-climate-discourse/ http://climatenetwork.org/2023/09/09/civil-society-reactions-to-the-g20-summit-statement-from-new-delhi-india/ http://fossilfueltreaty.org/g20-fossilfuels http://www.ipcc.ch/reports/ http://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/ http://www.un.org/en/climatechange/speeches http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/08/urgent-action-states-needed-tackle-climate-change-says-un-committee-guidance   http://insideclimatenews.org/news/08092023/experts-warn-of-denialism-comeback-ahead-of-cop28-global-climate-talks/ http://www.ipsnews.net/2023/11/dear-world-leaders-listening-now/ http://public.wmo.int/en/media/news/extreme-weather-new-norm http://insideclimatenews.org/news/01082023/far-right-battle-plan-to-undo-climate-progress-trump-win-2024/ http://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/fossil-gas/five-western-oil-and-gas-majors-to-blow-nearly-an-eighth-of-the-worlds-remaining-carbon-budget/ http://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/fossil-gas/cop28-presidents-oil-firm-failing-to-acknowledge-full-extent-of-their-carbon-footprint/ http://www.iisd.org/publications/report/fanning-flames-g20-support-of-fossil-fuels   Sep. 2023   Climate Justice Delayed, is Justice Denied. (IPS, agencies)   The failure to tackle the climate change crisis is an injustice to the millions who have lost lives and livelihoods through floods, extreme weather, and wildfires, pointing to the urgency of adaptation and mitigation finance, experts say.   It is a race against time to slash carbon emissions to keep global temperature below 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold, which gives the world some leeway to adapt to extreme events and prevent the planet from plunging further into crisis.   A global body of scientists assessing the science of climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has warned that “reaching 1.5°C in the near term would cause unavoidable increases in multiple climate hazards and present multiple risks to ecosystems and humans” and advised that limiting limit global warming to close to 1.5°C would substantially reduce projected losses and damages related to climate change in human systems and ecosystems.   Richard Munang, an environment expert and Deputy Regional Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Africa office says there are interrelated overarching priorities for climate action towards combating climate change.   “The first is to narrow down the global emissions gap to keep global temperature rise within the safe 1.5°C warming goal, and the second is to achieve a quantum leap in climate justice that addresses the needs of the communities, peoples, and countries on the frontlines of the climate crisis,” Munang told IPS.   “These are interrelated because the temperature goal of keeping warming to within 1.5°C is the best insurance against an escalation of climate change impacts and their associated costs that lead to the deprivation of many.”   Yamide Dagnet, director for Climate Justice at Open Society Foundations, says climate justice is needed more than ever because of the urgency of the impact of global emissions.   From heat waves and wildfires across Europe and Canada to droughts in China, the East, and the Horn of Africa to floods in India and the Himalayas, the impact of climate change-induced weather patterns is unrelenting. Through global temperature analysis, NASA found June 2023 to be the hottest on record.   “At a time when the world is experiencing extreme heat, the wide impacts of climate change affect not only small developing countries but developed countries too, which means that there is no justice for vulnerable people anywhere”.   “Communities in all countries are simply struggling to face the future with dignity. Climate justice is not just about subsistence and coping; it’s ensuring communities can sustain a livelihood in a world transformed by climate impacts that are undeniable everywhere,” Dagnet says.   As vulnerable countries battle climate change impacts, the provision of finance remains a ongoing question ahead of the COP28. According to the IPCC, climate finance for developing countries needs to be increased by up to eight times by 2030.   “Promises made on international climate finance must be kept,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, noting, “Developed countries must honor their commitments to provide $100 billion a year to developing countries for climate support and fully replenish the Green Climate Fund.”   Without delay and excuses, Guterres has called on countries to operationalize the loss and damage fund at COP28 this year.   G20 countries need to take more drastic steps to reduce emissions and to invest in ways to adapt to climate change and face the limits to adaptation by supporting their most vulnerable communities and the most vulnerable countries, says Dagnet.   “This is why it is important to operationalize the Loss and Damage Fund in COP28 in Dubai. This already took too long — three decades — (to when it was) established at COP27,” she says.   Joab Okanda, Pan Africa Senior Advocacy Advisor, Christian Aid, told IPS that the least responsible for climate emissions are the most vulnerable. Speaking about Africa, he noted the impact is exacerbated “because we have the least resources to build the resilience we need. We are calling on those responsible for the climate crisis to take responsibility, to deliver on the much-needed finance, which is delivering climate justice.   “There is a need to deal with the global financial architecture which is not delivering for the people of Africa. It is denying Africa the resources that governments require to invest in health care, education, and social protection and has also put Africa in unsustainable debt,” Okanda says.   Aditi Mukherji, Director of CGIAR’s climate impact platform, agreed.   “Contributing as little as four percent of global emissions, Africa faces the unjust dilemma of feeding a rising population with limited resources exactly as climate change is slowing down the rate of growth in food production,” she says.   “Unless green house (GHG) emissions decline rapidly, climate impacts will continue to worsen. Here, historical high emitters of the Global North can ratchet up their climate ambition and reduce their emissions while providing financial and technical assistance to put Africa on low emissions pathways that do not compromise future food security.”   Leleti Maluleke, a researcher for the human security and climate change program at Good Governance Africa, says: “We need greater funding assistance to make the investments that will allow us to build resilience to climate change.”   Dagnet believes that “Climate justice is not just about survival but also about benefit sharing, reducing inequality and enabling societies to adapt to a changing climate … We want to see the Loss and Damage Fund come to life as soon as possible. With the right capitalization and mechanisms to make it accessible to those who need it the most; not just the vulnerable countries, but local vulnerable communities as well.”   The global impact of climate change is alarming, considering all the financial, social, and health losses across development sectors.   According to the World Meteorological Organization, extreme weather anomalies have caused the deaths of two million people and incurred USD 4.3 trillion in economic damages.   While the World Health Organization has described climate change as the most significant health threat to humanity, with hundreds of thousands of additional deaths per year from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea, and heat stress due to climate change.   An annual average of 21.5 million people were forcibly displaced each year by weather-related events – such as floods, storms, wildfires, and extreme temperatures – between 2008 and 2016, says the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), warning that more people will be displaced as climate change unleashes more shocks.   “There is high agreement among scientists that climate change, in combination with other drivers, is projected to increase the displacement of people in the future,” the UNHCR says, noting that climate change has also been a “threat multiplier” in many of today’s conflicts, from Darfur to Somalia to Iraq and Syria.   In the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia, more than 43 million people need humanitarian assistance, 32 million of whom are acutely food insecure due to devastating drought, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).   “Nations need to step up their climate action and pursue the transformational change needed to secure a zero-carbon, climate-resilient, and equitable future,” argues the World Resources Institute (WRI).   For the world to keep to the 1.5 C, a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels — coal, oil, gas — is needed, and a similar escalation of investment in green energy such as wind and solar.   http://climatenetwork.org/2023/10/12/humanitarian-climate-and-development-organisations-issue-a-joint-call-to-demand-the-loss-and-damage-fund/ http://www.carbonbrief.org/qa-the-fight-over-the-loss-and-damage-fund-for-climate-change/ http://unctad.org/publication/taking-responsibility-towards-fit-purpose-loss-and-damage-fund http://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2023/11/06/history-made-terms-agreed-loss-and-damage-fund-cop28 http://insideclimatenews.org/news/03112023/loss-and-damage-talks-cast-shadow-on-climate-conference/   http://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/africa-suffers-disproportionately-from-climate-change http://www.ipsnews.net/2023/09/hunger-in-east-africa-is-a-true-testament-to-climate-injustice/ http://www.context.news/climate-justice/opinion/loss-and-damage-fund-must-deliver-climate-justice-to-communities http://taxonslessuperprofits.carefrance.org/en/ http://odihpn.org/publication/is-it-right-to-count-humanitarian-aid-as-loss-and-damage/ http://www.iisd.org/articles/press-release/shifting-g20-fossil-fuel-spending http://www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/latest-news/risk-of-passing-multiple-climate-tipping-points-escalates-above-1-5degc-global-warming
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