Source: The IPCC Report, Climate Litigation Wins and More
Amy Westervelt in Drilled
…Early this week the last report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that we’ll get during the window in which there is still time to avoid the worst effects of climate change dropped. That narrow window of time is currently being squandered as the U.S. and other developed countries move in the opposite direction from climate action. One thing the report illustrates starkly: if you care about the most vulnerable people in the world, you should be pushing for the least vulnerable to stop being such greedy pigs.
Obviously, IPCC authors would never say it like that. Instead it comes in the form of citations like this one: “The 10% of households with the highest per capita emissions contribute 34–45% of global consumption-based household GHG emissions, while the bottom 50% contribute 13–15%. (high confidence).”
And this: “Vulnerable communities who have historicallycontributed the least to current climate change are disproportionately affected (high confidence).”
Once again, the IPCC was unequivocal about the problem: our atmosphere has warmed (we’re at 1.1 degrees warmer on average), greenhouse gas emissions have caused that warming, and there is no way to avoid hitting 1.5 degrees of warming without ramping down fossil fuels. But it also pulled together a roadmap from the various reports that have been coming out over the past two years as part of this, its sixth, cycle of assessment. It’s nothing new there either, the solution is simple: transitioning off of fossil fuels, increasing energy efficiency, and reducing consumption.
“These reports show we can prevent irreversible harm to people and the planet if we scale up proven solutions available now,” Lili Fuhr, Deputy Director of CIEL’s Climate and Energy Program, said. “Replacing fossil fuels with renewables, increasing energy efficiency, and reducing energy and resource use are the surest path to limiting global warming to 1.5°C.”
…I saw some folks complaining online that the report got little coverage, but I saw a lot of really well-done stories, several of which were on the front page of major newspapers, including:
- The Fraught Negotiations Behind the New IPCC Report (by Ajit Niranjan for Heatmap)
- Why Optimism Can’t Fix Our Climate Politics (by Kate Aronoff for The New Republic)
- Sarah Kaplan’s coverage of the report for The Washington Post (which ran on the front page)
- Brad Plumer’s coverage for The New York Times (which ran on the front page)
- Fiona Harvey’s coverage for The Guardian (which ran on the front page)
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