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	The right to live in a healthy environment is a human right by IPCC, HRW, Climate Ambition Summit, 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   Oct. 2023   Pope Francis calls on industrialised world to make profound changes to tackle climate crisis   Pope Francis has issued a “papal exhortation” called Laudate Deum published by the Vatican, calling on Catholics and the world to make urgent and profound changes to tackle the climate crisis.   The Pope calls for “a decisive acceleration of energy transition” from fossil fuels to renewables. Without decisive action, the world would face “the point of no return”, he said. “Our responses have not been adequate, while the world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point.”   The pontiff expressed his hope that the Cop28 summit, to be held in Dubai this November and December, would “move beyond the mentality of appearing to be concerned but not having the courage needed to produce the substantial changes required”.   “To say that there is nothing to hope for would be suicidal, for it would mean exposing all humanity, especially the poorest, to the worst impacts of climate change.   “We can keep hoping that Cop28 will allow for a decisive acceleration of energy transition. The expansion of renewable energy. This conference can represent a change of direction, showing that everything done since 1992 was in fact serious and worth the effort, or else it will be a great disappointment and jeopardise whatever good has been achieved so far.”   He pointed to the key role of the hosts of Cop28, the United Arab Emirates a major oil producer. He said the country was “known as a great exporter of fossil fuels", although it has made investments in renewable energy sources. Meanwhile, gas and oil companies are planning major new projects there, with the aim of further increasing their production.   The Pope cautions against over-reliance on technical fixes. “To suppose that all problems in the future will be able to be solved by new technical interventions is a form of homicidal pragmatism, like pushing a snowball downhill.”   “We risk remaining trapped in the mindset of pasting and papering over cracks, while beneath the surface there is a continuing deterioration to which we continue to contribute.   Christiana Figueres, the former UN climate chief who led the Paris agreement process, said: “I warmly welcome the Holy Father’s new exhortation. He reminds us to use the three human languages he has identified for us – head, heart and hands – to protect nature and to protect the most vulnerable of our societies.”   Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, said: “Laudate Deum comes at a moment of unique challenge for the whole of humanity. As in the Old Testament, God lays before us a choice and says: ‘Choose life.’ Laudate Deum chooses life.”   Christine Allen, director at the Catholic aid agency Cafod, said: “Politicians in wealthy countries must lead the way: facing up to our historic responsibility as a major polluter, and providing more financial and technical support for communities to respond to the effects of climate change.”   Bill McKibben, the climate campaigner and co-founder of 350.org, said, “the work of spiritual leaders around the world may be our best chance of getting hold of things. Yes, we need this leadership.”   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.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/20231004-laudate-deum.html 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
	Threats from the misuse of artificial intelligence by British Medical Journal, UNESCO, agencies   May 2023   Threats from the misuse of artificial intelligence, report from the British Medical Journal   In this section, we describe three sets of threats associated with the misuse of Artificial Intelligence (AI), whether it be deliberate, negligent, accidental or because of a failure to anticipate and prepare to adapt to the transformational impacts of AI on society.   The first set of threats comes from the ability of AI to rapidly clean, organise and analyse massive data sets consisting of personal data, including images collected by the increasingly ubiquitous presence of cameras, and to develop highly personalised and targeted marketing and information campaigns as well as greatly expanded systems of surveillance.   This ability of AI can be put to good use, for example, improving our access to information or countering acts of terrorism. But it can also be misused with grave consequences.   The use of this power to generate commercial revenue for social media platforms, for example, has contributed to the rise in polarisation and extremist views observed in many parts of the world. It has also been harnessed by other commercial actors to create a vast and powerful personalised marketing infrastructure capable of manipulating consumer behaviour.   Experimental evidence has shown how AI used at scale on social media platforms provides a potent tool for political candidates to manipulate their way into power and it has indeed been used to manipulate political opinion and voter behaviour Cases of AI-driven subversion of elections include the 2013 and 2017 Kenyan elections, the 2016 US presidential election and the 2017 French presidential election.   When combined with the rapidly improving ability to distort or misrepresent reality with deepfakes, AI-driven information systems may further undermine democracy by causing a general breakdown in trust or by driving social division and conflict, with ensuing public health impacts. AI-driven surveillance may also be used by governments and other powerful actors to control and oppress people more directly.   This is perhaps best illustrated by China’s Social Credit System, which combines facial recognition software and analysis of ‘big data’ repositories of people’s financial transactions, movements, police records and social relationships to produce assessments of individual behaviour and trustworthiness, which results in the automatic sanction of individuals deemed to have behaved poorly.   Sanctions include fines, denying people access to services such as banking and insurance services, or preventing them from being able to travel or send their children to fee-paying schools. This type of AI application may also exacerbate social and health inequalities and lock people into their existing socioeconomic strata.   But China is not alone in the development of AI surveillance. At least 75 countries, ranging from liberal democracies to military regimes, have been expanding such systems. Although democracy and rights to privacy and liberty may be eroded or denied without AI, the power of AI makes it easier for authoritarian or totalitarian regimes to be either established or solidified and also for such regimes to be able to target particular individuals or groups in society for persecution and oppression.   The second set of threats concerns the development of Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS). There are many applications of AI in military and defence systems, some of which may be used to promote security and peace. But the risks and threats associated with LAWS outweigh any putative benefits.   Weapons are autonomous in so far as they can locate, select and ‘engage’ human targets without human supervision. This dehumanisation of lethal force is said to constitute the third revolution in warfare, following the first and second revolutions of gunpowder and nuclear arms.   Lethal autonomous weapons come in different sizes and forms. But crucially, they include weapons and explosives, that may be attached to small, mobile and agile devices (eg, quadcopter drones) with the intelligence and ability to self-pilot and capable of perceiving and navigating their environment. Moreover, such weapons could be cheaply mass-produced and relatively easily set up to kill at an industrial scale.   For example, it is possible for a million tiny drones equipped with explosives, visual recognition capacity and autonomous navigational ability to be contained within a regular shipping container and programmed to kill en masse without human supervision.   As with chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, LAWS present humanity with a new weapon of mass destruction, one that is relatively cheap and that also has the potential to be selective about who or what is targeted.   This has deep implications for the future conduct of armed conflict as well as for international, national and personal security more generally. Debates have been taking place in various forums on how to prevent the proliferation of LAWS, and about whether such systems can ever be kept safe from cyber-infiltration or from accidental or deliberate misuse.   The third set of threats arises from the loss of jobs that will accompany the widespread deployment of AI technology. Projections of the speed and scale of job losses due to AI-driven automation range from tens to hundreds of millions over the coming decade.   Much will depend on the speed of development of AI, robotics and other relevant technologies, as well as policy decisions made by governments and society. However, in a survey of most-cited authors on AI in 2012/2013, participants predicted the full automation of human labour shortly after the end of this century.   It is already anticipated that in this decade, AI-driven automation will disproportionately impact low/middle-income countries by replacing lower-skilled jobs, and then continue up the skill-ladder, replacing larger and larger segments of the global workforce, including in high-income countries.   While there would be many benefits from ending work that is repetitive, dangerous and unpleasant, we already know that unemployment is strongly associated with adverse health outcomes and behaviour, including harmful consumption of alcohol and illicit drugs, being overweight, and having lower self-rated quality of life and health and higher levels of depression and risk of suicide.   However, an optimistic vision of a future where human workers are largely replaced by AI-enhanced automation would include a world in which improved productivity would lift everyone out of poverty and end the need for toil and labour.   However, the amount of exploitation our planet can sustain for economic production is limited, and there is no guarantee that any of the added productivity from AI would be distributed fairly across society.   Thus far, increasing automation has tended to shift income and wealth from labour to the owners of capital, and appears to contribute to the increasing degree of maldistribution of wealth across the globe.   Furthermore, we do not know how society will respond psychologically and emotionally to a world where work is unavailable or unnecessary, nor are we thinking much about the policies and strategies that would be needed to break the association between unemployment and ill health.   The threat of self-improving artificial general intelligence   Self-improving general-purpose AI, or AGI, is a theoretical machine that can learn and perform the full range of tasks that humans can. By being able to learn and recursively improve its own code, it could improve its capacity to improve itself and could theoretically learn to bypass any constraints in its code and start developing its own purposes, or alternatively it could be equipped with this capacity from the beginning by humans.   The vision of a conscious, intelligent and purposeful machine able to perform the full range of tasks that humans can has been the subject of academic and science fiction writing for decades. But regardless of whether conscious or not, or purposeful or not, a self-improving or self-learning general purpose machine with superior intelligence and performance across multiple dimensions would have serious impacts on humans.   We are now seeking to create machines that are vastly more intelligent and powerful than ourselves. The potential for such machines to apply this intelligence and power—whether deliberately or not—in ways that could harm or subjugate humans—is real and has to be considered.   If realised, the connection of AGI to the internet and the real world, including via vehicles, robots, weapons and all the digital systems that increasingly run our societies, could well represent the ‘biggest event in human history’.   Although the effects and outcome of AGI cannot be known with any certainty, multiple scenarios may be envisioned. These include scenarios where AGI, despite its superior intelligence and power, remains under human control and is used to benefit humanity. Alternatively, we might see AGI operating independently of humans and coexisting with humans in a benign way.   Logically however, there are scenarios where AGI could present a threat to humans, and possibly an existential threat, by intentionally or unintentionally causing harm directly or indirectly, by attacking or subjugating humans or by disrupting the systems or using up resources we depend on.   A survey of AI society members predicted a 50% likelihood of AGI being developed between 2040 and 2065, with 18% of participants believing that the development of AGI would be existentially catastrophic. Presently, dozens of institutions are conducting research and development into AGI.   Assessing risk and preventing harm   Many of the threats described above arise from the deliberate, accidental or careless misuse of AI by humans. Even the risk and threat posed by a form of AGI that exists and operates independently of human control is currently still in the hands of humans. However, there are differing opinions about the degree of risk posed by AI and about the relative trade-offs between risk and potential reward, and harms and benefits.   Nonetheless, with exponential growth in AI research and development, the window of opportunity to avoid serious and potentially existential harms is closing. The future outcomes of the development of AI and AGI will depend on policy decisions taken now and on the effectiveness of regulatory institutions that we design to minimise risk and harm and maximise benefit.   Crucially, as with other technologies, preventing or minimising the threats posed by AI will require international agreement and cooperation, and the avoidance of a mutually destructive AI ‘arms race’. It will also require decision making that is free of conflicts of interest and protected from the lobbying of powerful actors with a vested interest.   Worryingly, large private corporations with vested financial interests and little in the way of democratic and public oversight are leading in the field of AGI research.   Different parts of the UN system are now engaged in a desperate effort to ensure that our international social, political and legal institutions catch up with the rapid technological advancements being made with AI.   In 2020, for example, the UN established a High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation to foster global dialogue and cooperative approaches for a safe and inclusive digital future.   In September 2021, the head of the UN Office of the Commissioner of Human Rights called on all states to place a moratorium on the sale and use of AI systems until adequate safeguards are put in place to avoid the ‘negative, even catastrophic’ risks posed by them.   And in November 2021, the 193 member states of UNESCO adopted an agreement to guide the construction of the necessary legal infrastructure to ensure the ethical development of AI. However, the UN still lacks a legally binding instrument to regulate AI and ensure accountability at the global level.   At the regional level, the European Union has an Artificial Intelligence Act which classifies AI systems into three categories: unacceptable-risk, high-risk and limited and minimal-risk. This Act could serve as a stepping stone towards a global treaty although it still falls short of the requirements needed to protect several fundamental human rights and to prevent AI from being used in ways that would aggravate existing inequities and discrimination.   There have also been efforts focused on LAWS, with an increasing number of voices calling for stricter regulation or outright prohibition, just as we have done with biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. State parties to the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons have been discussing lethal autonomous weapon systems since 2014, but progress has been slow.   What can and should the medical and public health community do? Perhaps the most important thing is to simply raise the alarm about the risks and threats posed by AI, and to make the argument that speed and seriousness are essential if we are to avoid the various harmful and potentially catastrophic consequences of AI-enhanced technologies being developed and used without adequate safeguards and regulation.   It is also important that we not only target our concerns at AI, but also at the actors who are driving the development of AI too quickly or too recklessly, and at those who seek only to deploy AI for self-interest or malign purposes.   If AI is to ever fulfil its promise to benefit humanity and society, we must protect democracy, strengthen our public-interest institutions, and dilute power so that there are effective checks and balances.   This includes ensuring transparency and accountability of the parts of the military–corporate industrial complex driving AI developments and the social media companies that are enabling AI-driven, targeted misinformation to undermine our democratic institutions and rights to privacy.   Given that the world of work and employment will drastically change over the coming decades, we should deploy our public health expertise in evidence-based advocacy for a fundamental and radical rethink of social and economic policy to enable future generations to thrive in a world in which human labour is no longer a central or necessary component to the production of goods and services..   http://gh.bmj.com/content/8/5/e010435?rss=1 http://managing-ai-risks.com/ http://www.safe.ai/statement-on-ai-risk http://theelders.org/news/elders-urge-global-co-operation-manage-risks-and-share-benefits-ai http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/21/ai-focused-tech-firms-locked-race-bottom-warns-mit-professor-max-tegmark http://futureoflife.org/project/mitigating-the-risks-of-ai-integration-in-nuclear-launch/ http://www.unesco.org/en/artificial-intelligence/recommendation-ethics http://www.solidar.org/en/news/eu-artificial-intelligence-act-civil-society-calls-for-regulating-surveillance-technology http://www.citizen.org/article/chatbots-are-not-people-dangerous-human-like-anthropomorphic-ai-report/ http://www.citizen.org/news/a-i-is-already-harming-democracy-competition-consumers-workers-climate-and-more/   http://lab.witness.org/projects/synthetic-media-and-deep-fakes/ http://carrcenter.hks.harvard.edu/technology-human-rights http://www.hrw.org/news/2023/05/03/pandoras-box-generative-ai-companies-chatgpt-and-human-rights http://www.hrw.org/topic/technology-and-rights http://www.stopkillerrobots.org/ http://www.accessnow.org/issue/artificial-intelligence/ http://edri.org/our-work/eu-parliament-plenary-ban-of-public-facial-recognition-human-rights-gaps-ai-act/ http://euobserver.com/digital/157163 http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/06/global-companies-must-act-now-to-ensure-responsible-development-of-artificial-intelligence/ http://www.article19.org/resources/eu-artificial-intelligence-act-must-do-more-to-protect-human-rights/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/topic/digital-space-and-human-rights Visit the related web page
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