View previous stories
	Civil Society Organizations call on Public Development Banks to change the way development is done by Forus International, IPS UN Bureau   Sep. 2023   In the midst of a complex web of crises, spanning climate change, biodiversity depletion, constraints on civic space and mounting debt burdens, civil society organizations and human rights defenders from over 50 countries have united their voices to call for immediate and impactful action from Public Development Banks (PDBs).   The global coalition’s message is clear: when it comes to financing for development, principles of rights, justice, sustainability, transparency, accountability and dignity for all cannot remain mere slogans. They must form the core of all projects undertaken by all Public Development Banks.   The Finance in Common Summit has become a pivotal platform for Public Development Banks from around the world. The fact that this year’s summit is taking place in Cartagena, Colombia, the deadliest country in the world in 2022 for human rights, envrionmental and indigenous activists, development banks must acknowledge and integrate the protection of human rights into their projects.   “Development banks are advocating to play an even bigger role in the global economy. But are they truly fit for this purpose? Unfortunately, the stories of communities around the world show us that development banks are failing to address the root causes of the very problems they claim to solve. We need to hold them accountable for this,” says Ivahanna Larrosa, Regional Coordinator for Latin America at the Coalition for Human Rights in Development.   “When PDB projects cause harm to people and the environment, PDBs must remedy these harms. All PDBs should implement an effective accountability mechanism to address concerns with projects and should commit to preventing and fully remediating any harm to communities,” adds Stephanie Amoako, Senior Policy Associate at Accountability Counsel.   The ongoing crises demand a transformation in the quality of financing and a power shift to include the voices of communities. The existing financial architecture not only impedes governments’ ability to safeguard both their citizens and the environment but also contributes to the escalating issue of chronic indebtedness. Policy-based lending and conditionalities enforced by International Financial Institutions have steered countries toward privatization of essential services, reduced social spending and preferential treatment for the private sector. This burdens the population with higher taxes, inflation, and weakened social safety nets.   “The same multinational companies that have polluted and violated human rights in Latin America are now obtaining financing from development banks for energy transition projects. Another example is the development of the green hydrogen industry in Chile, which carries a very high environmental and social risk,” says Maia Seeger, director of the Chilean civil society organization Sustentarse.   Addressing these issues requires a comprehensive and sustainable transformation of the financial architecture as well as holistic reforms and synergies with civil society and communities. Environmental and neo-colonial debts need to be a thing of the past and equitable reforms the thing of the present.   Global civil society, in response to these challenges, demands bold and decisive actions in a collective declaration signed by over 100 organisations. The demands are the result of a 4-year process in which a coalition of civil society organisations has come together to call on all PDBs at the Finance in Common Summit to embrace tangible actions that genuinely prioritize and protect people.   Just last month we have seen that change is possible when communities are involved, as the people of Ecuador voted to ban oil drilling in one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, the Yasuní National Park in the Amazon rainforest.   “The global financial system needs not just a rethink but a surgical operation, and that requires bold action. Governments and institutions such as the Public Development Banks must cancel the debt of the countries that require it and put in place concrete and immediate measures to put an end to public financing of fossil fuels, to have financing based on subsidies so as not to fall into the debt trap once again. It is time for the rich countries, the biggest polluters and creditors, to offer real solutions to the multiple crises we are currently experiencing,” says Gaia Febvre, International Policy Coordinator at Reseau Action climat France.   “Public and Multilateral Development Banks must divest from funding false climate solutions and projects that harm forests, biodiversity and communities. Instead, they should redirect finance to support gender just, rights based and ecosystems approaches that contribute to transformative changes leading to real solutions that address climate change, loss of biodiversity and create sustainable livelihoods for Indigenous Peoples, women in all their diversities and local communities.   Public funds must support community governed agroecological practices, small scale farming and traditional animal rearing practices instead of large scale agri-business which perpetuates highly polluting and emitting industrial agriculture and unsustainable livestock production, the root cause for deforestation and food insecurity,” adds Souparna Lahiri, Senior Climate and Biodiversity Policy Advisor at the Global Forest Coalition (GFC).   The call to action emphasizes that achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), effective climate action aligned with the Paris Agreement and successful implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework require Public Development Banks to pivot from a top-down profit-driven approach to one that prioritizes community-led involvement and human rights-based approaches.   http://www.ipsnews.net/2023/09/civil-society-organizations-unite-urge-public-development-banks-change-way-development-done/ http://www.forus-international.org/en/pdf-detail/93703-civil-society-organizations-joint-statement-on-the-third-finance-in-common-summit http://www.forus-international.org/en/financing-for-sustainable-development http://www.ipsnews.net/2023/07/grand-narrative-private-finance-reliance-attracting-investment-undermining-change-world-bank/ http://globalpublicinvestment.net/report-time-for-gpi/ Visit the related web page
	The right to live in a healthy environment is a human right by IPCC, HRW, Amnesty, agencies   Dec. 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   Dec. 2023   What will it take to Phase Out Fossil Fuels, asks Nikki Reisch, Director of the Climate and Energy Program at the Center for International Environmental Law   Amid record heatwaves, intensifying and costly extreme weather events, and increasingly dire warnings that climate change is literally killing us, calls to abandon fossil fuels grow louder. But the fossil-fuel industry is doubling down with investments in new oil and gas projects and major corporate mergers, walking back climate pledges, and making false promises that they can keep pumping without polluting. We need to ditch fossil fuels. But how?   The answer is unlikely to emerge from this year’s petrostate-hosted United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai, which could deliver a political commitment to phase out fossil fuels but won’t chart the pathway to a fossil-free future. To address what UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called “the poisoned root of the climate crisis,” we must look beyond the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to forge new forums fit for this purpose.   The good news is that Guterres, the pope, numerous national governments, and bodies like the International Energy Agency have joined the growing global call for a phaseout of coal, oil, and gas.   At the UN Climate Ambition Summit in September, governments acknowledged that the climate crisis is a fossil-fuel crisis. The question is not whether to move beyond oil and gas, but how. The bad news is that the fossil-fuel industry, buoyed by record-breaking profits in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, seems impervious to such pressure.   Worse, these colossal profits are being reinvested in more oil and gas development. As climate disasters intensify before our eyes, the industry responsible for nearly 90% of carbon dioxide emissions is betting that its dirty products will be a mainstay of the global economy for decades to come.   To force a change, we must expose the economic fragility that fossil-fuel dependence creates and its broader toll on human rights. Reliance on oil, gas, and coal makes communities more vulnerable to supply disruptions, affecting everything from heating and transportation to food prices.   Such disruptions fall hardest on the most impoverished populations while boosting the industry’s profits. It is worth recalling that fossil-fuel companies underperformed the market for the ten years preceding the war in Ukraine. That decade of decline reflected long-term energy-transition trends that the recent uptick in earnings has not changed. With fossil-fuel demand projected to peak globally by 2030, oil and gas remain a bad bet.   Part of the problem is that governments have responded to price volatility by increasing fossil-fuel subsidies, rather than imposing windfall taxes. They also have continued to approve new oil and gas projects, including offshore in protected ocean areas. Planned production is double what’s compatible with the target of limiting global warming to 1.5° Celsius above pre-industrial levels; there is simply no room for new oil and gas supply if the world is to avoid climate catastrophe.   Fossil fuels appear competitive with ever-cheaper renewables only because their production has been subsidized and their producers insulated from the costs associated with the damage they cause.   The industry’s negative externalities, long borne by frontline communities, are now being imposed on people around the world in the form of wildfires, hurricanes, floods, and droughts. If we compelled fossil-fuel companies to shoulder the losses they long saw coming, and redirected public funds to renewable solutions, oil and gas assets would be exposed as the liabilities they are.   This points to another big problem: corporate capture. Although climate litigation is key to holding the industry accountable, the challenge is not just to make polluters pay for the harms they cause. We also must diminish their outsize influence on climate policy.   Despite the best efforts of movements like Kick Big Polluters Out, the fossil-fuel industry not only has a seat at this year’s climate talks; it is at the head of the table. There sits Sultan Al Jaber, the CEO of the United Arab Emirates’ national oil company, which is currently pursuing its own expansion plans. Al Jaber, COP28 president, is intent on portraying the fossil-fuel industry as the hero, not the villain, in the fight against climate change.   Yet this is a well-known survival strategy for an industry in long-term decline. So, too, is the UAE’s advocacy of an “all of the above” approach that promotes renewables as a complement to fossil fuels, rather than a replacement for them, and that champions carbon capture and offsets, despite abundant evidence that neither leads to significant emissions reductions. Contrary to what Al Jaber suggested earlier this year, the problem is not just with fossil-fuel emissions; it is with fossil fuels themselves.   Focusing only on carbon ignores all the other negative effects of fossil fuels, including their impact on health, such as the eight million premature deaths from air pollution annually.   Though fossil fuels are overwhelmingly to blame for climate change, our UNFCCC-led climate regime has failed to address them, even before the industry was handed the gavel. For decades, the international body that should be leading the fossil-fuel phaseout has conspicuously avoided the issue.   Neither the 1992 UN Climate Convention nor the 2015 Paris climate agreement mentions oil, gas, or coal. This omission was not some casual oversight. It is a symptom of a deeper crisis in global climate governance.   Because UNFCCC decisions require a consensus among 198 members, powerful countries can block progress and assure lowest-common-denominator outcomes, or none at all. COP28 further underscores the need for alternative processes to manage the decline of fossil fuels, free from the influence of those who profit from them.   Every day provides new reminders of why we need to phase out oil, gas, and coal. Fortunately, initiatives like the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance, and the Global Parliamentarians’ Inquiry offer new ideas about how to do it. Governments must commit to a forum dedicated to fossil-fuel phaseout so the real work of ending the fossil-fuel era can begin.   http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/cop28-un-climate-talks-failing-to-address-fossil-fuels-by-nikki-reisch-2023-12 http://www.ciel.org/news/cop28-ciel-comment-cop28-dubai-summit-people-powered-progress-and-fossil-fueled-failure/ http://actionaid.org/publications/2024/taxing-windfall-profits-fossil-fuels-and-financial-companies-can-boost-climate http://actionaid.org/publications/2023/how-finance-flows-banks-fuelling-climate-crisis   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
	View more stories