The Climate Crisis Advisory Group (CCAG), chaired by CGLN Co-Founder Sir David King, has today released its latest report ‘The path beyond fossil fuels: seeking a just and orderly transition’.
The new report calls for #COP27 to address and compensate for loss and damage without delay and for 'infinite loss' from climate impact to be at the forefront of negotiations.
It argues for a reframing of the loss and damage discussion, where loss and damage is not only addressed and compensated, but the deliberative process to achieve it allows no room for nations to delay or deflect from taking all possible immediate steps to reduce their emissions deeply and rapidly.
The Group asserts that in the current context of climate change, loss and damage has conceptual limitations which must be recognised and resolved. For instance, no consensus has been reached between nations on how such loss and damage responsibilities should be enacted, and wealthier nations are stalling as poorer nations continue to suffer the impacts.
The notion of loss and damage also fails to address the ongoing loss of species and habitat - including the loss of cities and irreversible harm to entire countries.
Beyond tipping points and the issue of infinite loss.
The report points out that concepts of adaptation and climate justice become meaningless in the face of the destruction predicted should the world continue to pass critical tipping points. It makes clear, if such tipping points like the loss of the Greenland ice sheet or displacement of the El Niño weather system are passed, the impacts will be so substantial that economies and country systems will be unrecognisable from today.
The probability of catastrophic events is now high, and the impact of those events would be ‘infinite’. The high risk of ‘infinite’ losses is not bankable by any economy. It is this context that the report says is a state of ‘infinite loss’, and ongoing emissions rises and changes beyond any opportunity for adaptation or later mitigation, that climate justice must be considered.
There is now a moral imperative for climate discussions, negotiations, strategies, policies and actions to take into account that some losses will be catastrophic for humanity. At COP27, participants must therefore understand this dimension of injustice and not allow anything to derail the justice issue of a shared plan to deliver a safe future for all of humanity.
Reduce, Remove, Repair:
CCAG’s 3R strategy offers a way to frame the energy transition, and provides a way to choose the right way forward without further delay. It calls for urgent action in three key areas:
REDUCE emissions urgently, deeply and rapidly, while ensuring an orderly, just transition
REMOVE CO2 from the atmosphere in vast quantities to bring the level in the atmosphere back to manageable levels
REPAIR broken parts of the climate system, starting with the Arctic, to try and reverse local changes and stop the cascade effects of those changes through global climate systems.
For more information, read CCAG’s report here.
