Climate Emergency

“We face a direct existential threat…..if we do not change course by 2020 we risk missing the point where we can avoid runaway climate change, with disastrous consequences for people and all the natural systems that sustain us.”

Antonio Guterres, United Nations Secretary General, September 2018

The science of climate change is well established:

• Climate change is happening and human activities are the main cause.
• The concentration of greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere is directly linked to the average global temperature on Earth.
• The concentration has been rising steadily, and average global temperatures along with it, since the time of the Industrial Revolution.
• The last five years 2015-2019 have been the hottest on record globally.
• The most abundant greenhouse gas, accounting for about two-thirds of greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2), is largely the product of burning fossil fuels.

Source: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was set up to provide an objective source of scientific information on climate change.

In 1992, the Union of Concerned Scientists issued  “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity” calling on humans to curtail environmental destruction. They feared that human activities were pushing Earth’s ecosystems beyond their capacities to support the web of life.  

Despite this warning and decades of climate negotiations, including the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement, greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise. The average global temperature is already over 1oC above pre-industrial levels.

In November 2019 11,000 scientists, from 153 nations, issued a statement warning of ‘untold human suffering’ due to the climate crisis without urgent radical transformations to our global society. These include, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, halting the destruction of forests, reducing meat consumption, ending population growth and shifting economic goals away from focusing on GDP growth.

The June 2020 Report from the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) – which advises the government on emissions targets and reports to Parliament on progress made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions – now recommends that the government consider a 4^oC global temperature rise by 2100 in their adaptation planning.  This is deemed a likely scenario without rapid global decrease in greenhouse gas emissions.  A global temperature rise of 4^oC is likely to have catastrophic consequences including risks to food production, exacerbated water scarcity, unprecedented heatwaves and the flooding of coastal cities. This is likely to cause the displacement of many people and lead to conflicts over resources.

Recent news and focus of attention has been dominated by the immediate threat of Covid-19, but the climate and ecological crisis looms large. The CCC Report makes clear that the UK is ‘underprepared for even the minimum level of expected impacts of climate change’ and that ‘we do not yet have strong plans in place to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero across the economy.‘ 

Solutions:

There are plenty of solutions which can help tackle the climate crisis and improve health and wellbeing too: clean, renewable energy; resilient local communities; local food systems; encouraging more cycling and walking; zero carbon homes:

The Centre for Alternative Technology has undertaken a research project – Zero Carbon Britain – showing how a modern, zero-emissions society is possible using technology available today.

Project Drawdown provides an ongoing analysis of practices and technologies that can limit and begin to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.

The CCC Report sets out clear steps for a green and resilient economic recovery, which can be beneficial both in the short-term and long-term. Read more here.