Report exposes how failure to act on the climate emergency has led to permanent climate damage
August 9, 2021
Washington, DC — Following the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Report on The Physical Science Basis of Climate Change —the first part of the Sixth Assessment Report— the Center for International Environmental Law released the following statement:
“The new IPCC report out today confirms unequivocally what frontline communities know firsthand: Climate chaos is here. The report underscores the urgent need for an immediate end to our dependency on fossil fuels and the degradation of ecosystems.
“The IPCC’s findings highlight beyond a doubt that human-caused climate change is unleashing accelerating harms, touching every region of the world, and every increment of additional warming means more catastrophic impacts and higher human costs. It is no exaggeration to say that the rights of present and future generations and the future of our living planet hang in the balance. Already, fires are raging out of control, excessive heat is shattering temperature records across the globe, flooding and famine are leaving people unhoused and hungry.
“The answer lies not in what we will do in the next ten years, less still in what we will do by mid-century. It turns on what we will do immediately. The narrow pathway to have a decent chance of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C shows that the world’s remaining carbon budget is only 400 gigatons — less than ten years’ worth of global emissions at current levels. Only rapid and drastic reductions in carbon and methane emissions can prevent continued climate breakdown.
“First, we can and must end fossil fuel production and use. There is no excuse for allowing new oil and gas exploration and production and no excuse for extending the life of dirty energy facilities through technologies designed to fix rather than replace them. Governments and businesses must stop pouring money into wishful thinking techno-fixes designed to allow us to continue ‘burning as usual’ for years to come. As the UN Secretary-General said, ‘this report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet.’ Unless we loosen the stranglehold that fossil fuels have on policymakers, they will choke off the future.
“Second, governments must address the unequal impacts of the current climate emergency. That begins with living up to their commitments under the Paris Agreement and paying for the loss and damage that climate change is already inflicting, particularly on the most marginalized communities least responsible for the crisis.
“Third, they must halt widespread deforestation and forest degradation, putting an end to the gutting of the world’s remaining carbon sinks.
“There is no more time for delays, distractions, or meaningless rhetoric. The only thing that matters now is action.”
###
Media contact: Cate Bonacini, +1-202-742-5847, press(at)ciel.org