IPCC report: How many more climate warnings?

By NNIMMO BASSEY

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report has again exposed the folly of humankind and its addiction to dirty energy sources.

The report shows that there must be significant reduction in the use of fossil fuels. The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, has been forthright in sounding the climate alarm and he didn’t mince words over the new report when he declared, and we quote: “Today’s IPCC report is an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership. With fact upon fact, this report reveals how people and the planet are getting clobbered by climate change. Nearly half of humanity is living in the danger zone – now. Many ecosystems are at the point of no return – now. Unchecked carbon pollution is forcing the world’s most vulnerable on a frog march to destruction – now.”

The key numbers from the IPCC report include that there must be 85% less use of coal by 2050 and 60% less oil. The report also indicates that there must be 45% less use of fossil gas by 2050.

What the IPCC is essentially saying is that the world has to move away from fossil fuels, not grudgingly, not slowly, but resolutely, understanding that this is a “now or never” situation. What the IPCC did not say is that 2050 may be a bridge too far! The world is heating faster than previously thought and the 1.5 °C and “well below” 2 °C fig leaves offered by the Paris Agreement are already shrivelled and are blowing in the wind.

The IPCC is obviously being cautious not to be alarmist even with the alarming evidence before it. Clearly, today’s leaders and speculators would prefer to fiddle while the planet burns.

The thing is that the fossils have to be left in the ground. According to the UN Secretary-General, the report shows that “coal and other fossil fuels are choking humanity”.

It is shameful that the world cannot stop pandering to the whims of an industry that desires to keep exploring, to keep digging up and burning fossils and then talk of sucking the carbon out of the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide removal pathways often proposed include ocean fertilisation and direct carbon capture and storage. These experiments need to be carried out at planetary scale and kept going permanently. Their efficacy is not assured and the negative fallouts could compound the problems faced by already vulnerable nations and territories.

The promotion and pursuit of technofixes are happening at a time when when wind and solar are getting more economically viable as  replacements for fossil fuels. There is the option of converting stranded offshore platforms and floating vessels into wind and solar farms and thus putting them to cleaner use. It is incredible that humans prefer to bandage the scarred planet, rather than halting the well known harmful practices.

The world has to wake to acknowledge true climate champions as those on the frontlines of resistance against the expansion of the fossil fuels frontiers. We have to applaud the fishers and communities of South Africa who have so far successfully staved off the claws of oil companies, including Shell, from carrying out seismic activities in their waters. The cries of “Fish not Oil,” and “Ocean not Oil” are distress calls by children of the Earth for humanity to recover their common sense and think of the future. When the Ogoni people said not a drop of oil should be taken out of their land and they demanded a clean-up of their grossly contaminated environment, they were seeing into the future, a future built without dirty energy. This is the time to applaud these climate champions.

It is time for the world to invest in building resilience, stop mindless fossil fuelled and distracting wars against hapless peoples, and mindless assault on other living beings through industrial, toxic, fossil fuels dependent on agriculture. It is time to support agroecology in order to produce healthy soils, cool the planet and feed the world with safe, healthy foods.

The IPCC report may not have said it, but we need a mind reset requiring the universal recognition of the Rights of Nature and the acceptance of Ecocide as a crime in the same order as other unusual crimes. An exploitative and transactional relationship with Nature has brought the world to the brink. Continuing with the mindset that we can fix Nature by placing her on life support provided by geoengineering or biotechnology and other synthetic formulations will only lead humans blindfolded to the precipice.

The IPCC projections cannot be achieved through nationally determined contributions. We must highlight historical and present responsibilities, demand common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR), the foundational base of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Climate justice isn’t a thing to be cherry-picked. The demands of solidarity require that polluters do their fair share. It requires the payment of a climate debt owed those least responsible for the climate debacle and who may now be forced to bear more burdens through extraction of more minerals for “green” energy. It is time to pay for loss and damage and halt the reign of carnage perpetrated by wars, mindless extraction and wastes.

How many times must the IPCC sound the alarm before humanity wakes up? Wake up, world. The fossil age cannot wait until the last drop of oil has been scrapped and burned.

Nnimmo Bassey is the director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF)