OMNI
CLIMATE
URGENCY, CLIMATE EMERGENCY NEWSLETTER.
DECEMBER
17, 2019.
Compiled
by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology.
http://omnicenter.org/donate/
A few years ago the usual reference to a warming world was
“climate change.” Last year “climate
catastrophe” or “climate calamity” were gaining prominence. And now “climate emergency” claims precedence. Brenda Looper in her column in the NADG (“Weighty Words,” 12-11-19, 7B)
wrote about this rapid evolution of the language used to describe the increase
of atmospheric temperature and its consequences.
“The Oxford
Dictionaries blog notes: ‘The Oxford Word of the Year is a word or expression
shown through usage evidence to reflect the ethos, mood or preoccupations of
the passing year, and have lasting potential as a term of cultural
significance.’ The expression that did that for 2019, it said, was ‘climate
emergency.’”
From hieroglyphic
stairway by Drew Dellinger
What
Did You Do?
it’s
3:23 in the morning
and
I’m awake
because
my great great grandchildren
won’t
let me sleep
my
great great grandchildren
ask me
in dreams
what
did you do while the planet was plundered?
what
did you do when the earth was unraveling?
surely
you did something
when
the seasons started failing?
as the
mammals, reptiles, birds were all dying?
did
you fill the streets with protest
when
democracy was stolen?
what
did you do
once
you
knew?
(Reprinted from Facing
the Anthropocene by Ian Angus.)
What follows is a miscellany of writings about what the UN
Secretary-General called the “defining issue of our time.”
UN Climate report Nov. 26 Bleak
EU Parliament Declares Climate and Environmental Emergency
Climate Emergency Campaign
Cities Passing Emergency Declarations
Strategies for Local Campaigns
National Declarations
Advice and Inspiration
Google Searches
World Scientists Declare Emergency and Plan for Action
Colleges and Universities Declare Emergency and Unveil Plan
And Full Alert: Warming and Nuclear War, Art Hobson, “The
Fate of the Earth”
“U.N. climate change findings bleak. Major countries failing to halt rise of
greenhouse gas emissions, report says” by Somini Sengupta. The New York
Times | (November 27, 2019). Publ. also in NADG
same day. –D]
Four years after countries struck a landmark deal in Paris to
rein in greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to avert the worst effects of
global warming, humanity is headed toward those very climate catastrophes,
according to a U.N. report issued Tuesday [Nov. 26], with China and the United
States, the two biggest polluters, having expanded their carbon footprints last
year.
"The summary findings are bleak,"
the report said, because countries have failed to halt the rise of greenhouse
gas emissions even after repeated warnings from scientists. The result, the
authors added, is that "deeper and faster cuts are now required."
The world's 20 richest
countries, responsible for more than three-fourths of emissions, must take the
biggest, swiftest steps to move away from fossil fuels, the report emphasized.
The richest country of all, the United States, however, has formally begun to
pull out of the Paris accord.
Global greenhouse gas emissions have grown
by 1.5% every year over the past decade, according to the annual assessment,
the Emissions Gap Report, which is
produced by the U.N. Environment Program.
The opposite must happen if the world is to avoid the worst effects of climate
change, including more intense droughts, stronger storms and widespread food
insecurity by midcentury. To stay within relatively safe limits, emissions must
decline sharply, by 7.6% every year, between 2020 and 2030, the report warned.
Separately, the World Meteorological Organization reported Monday that emissions of
three major greenhouse gases -- carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide --
have all swelled in the atmosphere since the mid-18th century.
Under the Paris
agreement, reached in November 2015, every country has pledged to rein in emissions,
with each setting its own targets and timetables. Even if every country
fulfills its current pledges -- and many, including the United States, Brazil
and Australia, are currently not on track to do so -- the Emissions Gap Report
found average temperatures are on track to rise by about 5.8 degrees Fahrenheit
from the baseline average temperature at the start of the industrial age.
According to scientific models, that kind
of temperature rise sharply increases the likelihood of extreme weather events,
the accelerated melting of glaciers and swelling seas -- all endangering the
lives of billions of people.
The Paris agreement resolved to hold the
increase in global temperatures well below 3.6 degrees; last year, a
U.N.-backed panel of scientists said the safer limit was to keep it to 2.7
degrees.
There are many ways to reduce emissions:
quitting the combustion of fossil fuels, especially coal, the world's dirtiest
fossil fuel; switching to renewable energy like solar and wind power; moving away
from gas- and diesel-guzzling cars; and halting deforestation.
In fact, many countries are headed in the
wrong direction. A separate analysis released this month looked at how much
coal, oil and natural gas the world's nations have said they expect to produce
and sell through 2030. If all those fossil fuels were ultimately extracted and
burned, the report found, countries would collectively miss their climate
pledges, as well as the global 3.6 degree target, by an even larger margin than
previously thought.
Diplomats are scheduled to gather in
Madrid in December for the next round of negotiations over the rules of the
Paris agreement. The world's biggest polluters are under pressure to raise
their pledges. "This is a new and
stark reminder," Spain's minister for ecological transition, Teresa
Ribera, said of the Emissions Gap Report in an email. "We urgently need to
align with the Paris agreement objectives and elevate climate ambition."
If there is any good news in the report,
it is that the current trajectory is not as dire as it was before countries
around the world started taking steps to cut their emissions. The 2015 Emissions Gap Report said that,
without any climate policies at all, the world was likely to face around 7
degrees of warming. Coal use is
declining sharply, especially in the United States and Western Europe,
according to an analysis by Carbon Brief. Renewable energy is expanding fast,
though not nearly as fast as necessary. And city and state governments around
the world, including in the United States, are rolling out stricter rules on
tailpipe pollution from cars.
EU Parliament Declares ‘Climate and
Environmental Emergency’. Olivia Rosane.
EcoWatch Nov. 29, 2019.
European
Parliament declared a "climate and environmental emergency" Thursday, calling on the
European Commission to make sure all legislation and budgets align with the
goal of limiting global warming to 1.5
degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
In
another resolution, the group called on the EU to submit a strategy to the UN
Convention on Climate Change for reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. The
European Commission has already proposed a 2050 carbon neutrality goal, but the
opposition of Poland, Hungary and Czechia has stopped it from earning the
endorsement of the European Council.
The
votes come less than one week before countries are set to gather in Madrid for the UN COP25 Climate Change Conference.
"The
fact that Europe is the first continent to declare climate and environmental
emergency, just before COP25, when the new commission takes office, and three
weeks after Donald Trump confirmed the United States' withdrawal from the Paris agreement, is a strong message sent to citizens and the
rest of the world," French liberal Member of European Parliament (MEP)
Pascal Canfin, who wrote a draft of the climate emergency resolution,
said, according to The Guardian.
Some
climate activists applauded the European Parliament's emergency declaration,
but also urged the EU to back up words with deeds.
"We
can't solve a crisis without treating it as one," Swedish school-strike
leader Greta Thunberg tweeted from the Atlantic Ocean, as she
sails back from North America to attend COP25. "Let's hope they now take
drastic sufficient action."
Greenpeace EU climate policy adviser Sebastian Mang shared a similar
sentiment before the vote.
"Our
house is on fire. The European parliament has seen the blaze, but it's not
enough to stand by and watch," Mang said, according to The Guardian.
The
first resolution was adopted 429 to 225 with 19 abstentions, and the second
passed 430 to 190 with 34 abstentions.
The
votes came a day after European Commission President-elect Ursula von der
Leyen, the first woman to lead the EU's executive arm, pledged that the EU
would be the first continent to reach net zero emissions by 2050, The Washington Post reported. She has promised a European Green Deal,
which the commission will draft within 100 days of taking office in December.
"If
there is one area where the world needs our leadership, it is on protecting our
climate," she said, as The Washington Post reported. "This is an
existential issue for Europe — and for the world."
The
European Parliament's resolutions Thursday will put additional pressure on her
to make good on her promises, and even increase them. Von der Leyen has
proposed a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to at least 50 percent of
1990 levels by 2030, but the second resolution called on her to make that a 55
percent reduction. The current target is 40 percent, which activists and Green
politicians argue is not ambitious enough, according to The Guardian.
A UN study released this week warned that greenhouse gas emissions
must decline 7.6 percent every year for the next decade in order to limit
global warming to 1.5 degrees.
On cities passing declarations of climate emergency:
Climate Emergency Campaign
https://www.theclimatemobilization.org/climate-emergency-campaign
We demand governments adopt an emergency response to
climate change and the broader ecological crisis. Declaring Climate Emergency
is the critical first step to launching the comprehensive mobilization
solution required to rescue and rebuild civilization.
We are working to compel governments in the United States and throughout the
world to declare Climate Emergency.
Over 1245 local governments in 25
countries have declared a climate emergency and committed to action to drive
down emissions at emergency speed.
Interactive
map at this link: https://www.theclimatemobilization.org/climate-emergency-campaign
Over 798 million people are represented by local governments
that have declared a Climate Emergency.
This data sheet tracks all declarations with links to
more info: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tb-LklFWLujYnjmCSvCWRcLUJCCWAL27dKPzVcFq9CQ/edit#gid=0
Campaign
Background
The goal of the
Climate Emergency Campaign is to compel governments, starting at the local
level and building upward, to adopt an emergency response to climate change and
the broader ecological crisis. Entering emergency mode is the critical first
step to launching the comprehensive mobilization required to rescue and rebuild
civilization.
The Climate Emergency
Campaign officially started in the city of Darebin, Australia—whose city
government passed the first declaration of climate emergency in December 2016.
Because of our work, Hoboken New Jersey became the third city in the world and
the first city in the U.S. to declare a Climate Emergency in November, 2017.
Bolstered by a growing
number of organizations and individuals, this campaign has spread to thirteen
countries and has been adopted by multiple organizations as a rallying cry for
the next phase of the climate movement.
Read a concise
overview of the history of the “Climate Emergency” global campaign here.
Current
strategic priorities for local campaigns
1. Pass declarations
of Climate Emergency with commitment to reach zero emissions and begin carbon
drawdown at emergency speed (10 years or less).
2. Local elected
leaders become advocates for emergency Climate Mobilization to the public, to
other cities, and to state and national gov’ts.
3. Develop and
implement mobilization policy locally, after declaration is passed.
Declaration
Templates
Please use our
templates to initiate a Climate Emergency Declaration in your local or state
government. We ask that you retain the core demands in your resolution.
Local Government
Declaration Template: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dA3Jnx4xlrqrMrlyITdtD_WBynr_UuU-cjuZpyW7Gts/edit
Climate Emergency +
Green New Deal Declaration Template
State Government
Declaration Template
By declaring that we
are in a climate emergency and committing to addressing it in time to avoid the
worst outcomes, local governments can become leaders in the Climate Emergency
Movement, and inspire other governments to do the same.
Why Focus on
local governments?
Cities and local
governments have historically been the spark for progress, from minimum wage to
civil rights. Local wins inspire other communities to follow and build a
mandate for much-needed national mobilizations. For example, the Climate and
Environment Emergency Declaration in the United Kingdom started in cities and
local councils.
Climate emergency declarations in
1,252 jurisdictions and local governments cover 798 million citizens
https://climateemergencydeclaration.org/climate-emergency-declarations-cover-15-million-citizens/
1,252
jurisdictions in 26 countries have declared a climate emergency. Populations
covered by jurisdictions that have declared a climate emergency amount to 798
million citizens, with 55 million of these living in the United Kingdom. This
means in Britain now over 80 per cent of the population lives in areas that
have declared a climate emergency, almost 400 councils all together. In New
Zealand, the percentage is nearly as high: 74 per cent of the population.
NATIONAL
DECLARATIONS
On 29 April 2019, the first parliament in the world to declare a climate emergency at the national level was the Welsh Parliament. Some say it was Scotland, though, because on 28 April 2019, the First Minister of Scotland declared a climate emergency on behalf of her government at an annual Scottish National Party conference.
On 29 April 2019, the first parliament in the world to declare a climate emergency at the national level was the Welsh Parliament. Some say it was Scotland, though, because on 28 April 2019, the First Minister of Scotland declared a climate emergency on behalf of her government at an annual Scottish National Party conference.
On 1 May
2019, the United Kingdom Labour
Party got unanimous support for a non-binding motion in favour of a climate
emergency declaration in the House of Commons, claiming Britain thereby
was the first country in the world where a bipartisan parliament had declared a
climate emergency.
On 3 May
2019, the Gibraltar Parliament followed,
and the government of the Republic of Ireland announced their
declaration on 9 May. The next day, the Isle of Man parliament declared
a climate emergency as well.
The Parliament of Portugal declared
a climate emergency on 7 June 2019, the Canadian House of Commons followed on 17 June
2019, and the French parliament a climate emergency
on 27 June 2019. Argentina followed on 17 July
2019.
LOCAL
GOVERNMENTS
On the list below are only included jurisdictions that have passed a binding motion declaring a climate emergency. As such, the non-binding motion instigated by UK Labour, for example, is not included in this data. Typical resolutions include setting up a process to develop an action plan and report back to council within three to six months.
On the list below are only included jurisdictions that have passed a binding motion declaring a climate emergency. As such, the non-binding motion instigated by UK Labour, for example, is not included in this data. Typical resolutions include setting up a process to develop an action plan and report back to council within three to six months.
AUSTRALIA
In Australia, where the climate emergency declaration mobilisation and petition was launched in May 2016, over 75 jurisdictions representing roughly 6.5 million people – a quarter of the population – have declared a climate emergency, including the government of the Australian Capital Territory, based in the capital Canberra, and South Australia’s Upper House. More than 100 of the candidates in the 18 May 2019 federal election had signed the Climate Emergency Declaration petition.
In Australia, where the climate emergency declaration mobilisation and petition was launched in May 2016, over 75 jurisdictions representing roughly 6.5 million people – a quarter of the population – have declared a climate emergency, including the government of the Australian Capital Territory, based in the capital Canberra, and South Australia’s Upper House. More than 100 of the candidates in the 18 May 2019 federal election had signed the Climate Emergency Declaration petition.
These are the overall figures, according to population
statistics available via the Internet:
The list is maintained by Cedamia
Map of Swedish municipalities – which visualises
the status of each, including those who end up voting against declaring a
climate emergency.
Similar lists
This
data compilation was initiated by Philip Sutton. Various lists are being
updated independently, including:
»
ClimateEmergency.uk’s news page (United Kingdom):
www.climateemergency.uk/blog/category/climate-emergency
www.climateemergency.uk/blog/category/climate-emergency
Note:
We have received questions from councillors and media about what a ‘climate emergency declaration’ or motion should contain, and whether there are certain criteria or guidelines to this.
We have received questions from councillors and media about what a ‘climate emergency declaration’ or motion should contain, and whether there are certain criteria or guidelines to this.
For instance, can
achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 be considered an ‘emergency’
response, or should the year be set as 2040, 2030 or even as ambitious as 2025?
Our call for declaring a
climate emergency is not structured movement with a specific guideline and a
set of criteria as such. It is an open ‘movement of movements’, and there are
many opinions floating around about what is the best strategy.
Eventually, it is up to
each individual council to make up its mind about what it wants to suggest and
to implement.
Inspirational: Here’s some advice and inspiration – and here’s
more advice and inspiration from CACE
“At the Paris climate talks, scientists and people from
low-lying island states set 1.5°C of warming as a red line that must not be
crossed. However, earlier this year, the global average temperature spiked past
1.6°C of warming.
The bleaching of coral reefs around the world, increasing extreme weather events, the melting of large ice sheets and recent venting of methane from thawing permafrost make it abundantly clear that the earth is already too hot.
The future of human civilisation, and the survival of the precious ecosystems on which we depend, now hang in the balance.
There must be an immediate ban on new coal and gas developments and an emergency-speed transition to zero emissions. We must begin the enormous task of safely drawing down the excess greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere.
We call on the new parliament to declare a climate emergency.”
The bleaching of coral reefs around the world, increasing extreme weather events, the melting of large ice sheets and recent venting of methane from thawing permafrost make it abundantly clear that the earth is already too hot.
The future of human civilisation, and the survival of the precious ecosystems on which we depend, now hang in the balance.
There must be an immediate ban on new coal and gas developments and an emergency-speed transition to zero emissions. We must begin the enormous task of safely drawing down the excess greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere.
We call on the new parliament to declare a climate emergency.”
This was the climate emergency declaration petition text we
wrote in 2016:
Given that:
• climate impacts are already causing serious loss of life and destroying vital ecosystems
• global average temperature, atmospheric greenhouse gases, and ocean acidity are already at dangerous levels, and
• wartime economic mobilisations have proven how quickly nations can restructure their economies when facing an extreme threat it is inexcusable to continue with climate-damaging policies that put us all in even greater peril. The Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C goal is not a safe goal.
• climate impacts are already causing serious loss of life and destroying vital ecosystems
• global average temperature, atmospheric greenhouse gases, and ocean acidity are already at dangerous levels, and
• wartime economic mobilisations have proven how quickly nations can restructure their economies when facing an extreme threat it is inexcusable to continue with climate-damaging policies that put us all in even greater peril. The Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C goal is not a safe goal.
We call on all Australian
federal, state, and territory parliaments and all local councils to:
• declare a climate emergency
• commit to providing maximum protection for all people, economies, species, ecosystems, and civilisations, and to fully restoring a safe climate
• mobilise the required resources and take effective action at the necessary scale and speed
• transform the economy to zero emissions and make a fair contribution to drawing down the excess carbon dioxide in the air, and
• encourage all other governments around the world to take these same actions.
• declare a climate emergency
• commit to providing maximum protection for all people, economies, species, ecosystems, and civilisations, and to fully restoring a safe climate
• mobilise the required resources and take effective action at the necessary scale and speed
• transform the economy to zero emissions and make a fair contribution to drawing down the excess carbon dioxide in the air, and
• encourage all other governments around the world to take these same actions.
We’ve risen to big challenges in
the past when an emergency has been declared, with citizens and all sides of
politics rising to the occasion and working together for the common good.
We call on the Australian government to do what is necessary
now.
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