Friday 29th of March 2024

COP27 — getting serious about climate?.....

 

The world must choose whether to cut emissions or condemn future generations to a climate catastrophe, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned while speaking at the COP27 summit in Egypt on Monday.

“Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish,” Guterres told delegates gathered to discuss how to combat change amid an ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine and rising global inflation and energy shortages.

Guterres insisted that the world’s richest and poorest counties must form a pact to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels, singling out China and the United States as two countries that have a“particular responsibility to join efforts to make this pact a reality.”

It is either a climate solidarity pact or a collective suicide pact.

“Greenhouse gas emissions keep growing. Global temperatures keep rising. And our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible,” Guterres said, proclaiming that “we are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator.”

The UN chief’s warnings were seconded by former US vice president Al Gore, who also emphasized the need to end the reliance on fossil fuels. “We must see the so-called ‘dash for gas’ for what it really is: A dash down a bridge to nowhere, leaving the countries of the world facing climate chaos and billions in stranded assets, especially here in Africa,” he said.

Guterres also pointed out that the world must achieve net zero emissions by 2050 if the signatories of the 2015 Paris Climate agreement wish to achieve their long-term goal of keeping global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

Last week, notorious teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg suggested battling climate change by eliminating capitalism, which she said was defined by “colonialism, imperialism, oppression and genocide by the so-called global North.”

 

READ MORE:

https://www.rt.com/news/566093-guterres-un-climate-change/

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW................

 

in the greenhouse........

 

By NDUMISO MLILO

 

South Africa has vowed to negotiate for the balancing of funding for adaptation and mitigation and push for developed countries to honor the climate change financing pledge at the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, or COP 27, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

Barbara Creecy, South Africa's minister of forestry, fisheries and the environment, said developed countries have been responsible for greenhouse emissions for more than 200 years, while African countries that are most affected by climate change have contributed less than 4 percent to accumulated greenhouse emissions.

"We have had recent estimates that African countries require over $440 billion for the next 10 years for mitigation and adaptation. We think it is important in the short term that developed nations need to honor the commitments that they have made to climate financing," Creecy told China Daily.

"We know the commitment made in Paris has still not been honored for raising $100 billion per annum. We think that to establish trust between developing and developed countries it would be very important that pledges are honored."

African countries have limited resources and are developing with most of them "heavily indebted", she said, and they should not borrow money to address the effects of climate change that would increase their indebtedness. There should be a fund for developing countries to claim money when they experience disasters as a result of climate change, Creecy said.

"We want to make sure there are new financial goals after 2025 and we want that to be met. It should not be a thumb-sucked figure that is not new finance. It must be predictable and available.

"We want to make sure that developed countries responsible for historic greenhouse gas emissions are not reneging on the climate financing commitment they made at COP 26. We want to make sure that they are not trying to push responsibility for climate commitments to developing countries. We hope to get the best deal for our people, country and humanity."

Creecy said there should be a balance on the financing for adaptation and mitigation. Developing countries have to honor climate commitments so vulnerable communities and sectors of the economy are not left behind, she said, and conflict of climate justice within the Global North and South should be understood, mainstreamed and integrated into the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and financed.

Hope expressed

Crispian Olver, executive director of South Africa's Presidential Climate Commission, said it is looking forward to COP 27. He welcomed the government's negotiating position at COP 27, which he said is aligned with the expectations of many South African stakeholders.

"We want the global goal on adaptation to be implemented. There is a target there, 50 percent resilience by 2030 and 90 percent by 2050. We are pleased that the South African government is pushing this adaptation finance facility, which will be embedded into the global architecture. The most important one for us is to push the notion of a just transition.

"Developed countries in the North that are primarily responsible for the climate crisis need to step forward and deliver on the commitment of $100 billion per annum for climate finance, and they have not been forthcoming. In fact, needs are much higher than that."

Olver said the research will be presented on climate investment needs at COP 27, and what South Africa has been doing on climate change will be highlighted.

 

READ MORE:

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202211/07/WS63685e7da3105ca1f2274607.html

 

Half a century ago, the Club of Rome came to the conclusion physical growth cannot continue forever on a finite planet. The Limits to Growth, commissioned by the group in 1970, warned rapid growth in population, use of resources and pollution would have to stop within 100 years if humanity was not going to destroy the global environment.

Now half a century has passed and human progress has increased the pressure on global boundaries, even beginning to exceed some of them - particularly in the climate area. Global warming and associated climate change and extreme weather are emerging as the main threat to human well-being for the rest of this century.

In an exclusive interview with China Daily, Jorgen Randers, co-author of The Limits to Growth, shared his thoughts on the future of humanity and China's role in the global response to climate change.

In the view of Randers, "the politics of the 21st century will be dominated by physical boundaries, especially in the climate area."

 

READ MORE:

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202211/03/WS63631192a310fd2b29e7fff2.html

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

 

 

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW..................