Last Week of COP21
We are officially in the home stretch of global climate talks. The final ‘draft’ text has been approved by negotiators and handed to environment ministers to be decided in the next week.
The draft text has some promising, and some very worrying parts. Here are the biggest issues 350.org sees about what’s currently on the table:
- The date for phasing out fossil fuels keeps being pushed back. Keeping warming to safe levels requires phasing out fossil fuels and moving to 100% renewable energy by 2050, a date which many countries have already agreed is feasible. But the earliest mentioned date in the draft text is “2060-2080,” and other proposals calling for a transition ‘over the course of the century.’ We don’t have another lifetime to wait for real action, and we will push for serious reductions in fossil fuel consumption and production on the fastest timeframe possible.
- Indigenous Rights have been removed from the text. Indigenous people are on the front lines of battles to keep fossil fuels in the ground over the globe, and respecting their rights is essential to a just transition to the energy economy we need. Our Indigenous allies are working on the strategy to re-include this section into the text and we will fight with them.
- The path to increasing ambition after Paris is unclear. A critical part of any agreement will be establishing regular meetings to check in on progress of enforcing the deal and increasing the ambition to match with new developments. The means by which this will happen is still quite uncertain, and understanding that will be essential to whether the deal sends a real signal that the world is getting off fossil fuels.
With fossil fuel lobbyists, powerful governments and other people at the hands of big polluters pushing for a weak deal — it’s more important than ever that we make our demands clear. The solutions are obvious: we need to keep at least 80% of fossil fuels in the ground, finance a just transition to 100% renewable energy, and make sure communities on the front lines of climate change have the resources they need to respond to the crisis.
Can you help us tell governments what the solutions are? Click here to share on Twitter:
Big fights are coming this week to cap warming at 1.5C. Here are a few articles that sum-up where we’re at and what’s to come:
- With 1.5 Degrees Celsius Target, Climate Justice Movement Poised to Score Surprise Win – The Nation
- At U.N. climate talks, top officials turn up heat for final week – Reuters
- Climate Change Conference: Halftime Assessment of COP21 – Decoded Science
- #COP21 deal: Indigenous peoples fear rights might be dropped – Rappler.
- Also see video from the Indigenous Environmental Network here: youtube.com/watch?v=2ya4yrA0aFo&
- Proposal to achieve zero emissions growth by 2060-80 – The Hindu
** re-posted from Duncan Meisel, 350.org
