- The Climate Crisis Advisory Group’s latest report recommends the widening of climate targets to include GHG atmospheric levels, which are critical ‘real-time’ indicators of climate change.
- Even at ‘just’ 1.07 degrees of global warming – a figure based on the 10-year global average – vulnerable countries and communities around the world are experiencing severe impacts.
- CCAG calls for governments to urgently commit to ambitious NDCs to ensure a safe pathway for humanity remains within reach.
Long-term global temperature measurements are failing to capture the increasing rate of warming, masking the true extent and risk of unabated temperature rises that are already having devastating impacts around the world.
That’s according to CCAG’s latest report, which calls for greater accuracy in monitoring efforts to stay below the 1.5 degree target – an absolute planetary boundary, not an arbitrary limit – and sets out a pathway for nations to mitigate and limit the catastrophic impacts of climate change.
On this basis, the report stresses the need for much greater ambition on NDC targets to ensure they deliver the resources needed to achieve global Net Zero by 2050. In turn, these should align with CCAG’s 4R Planet Strategy, a comprehensive approach to climate change that it believes will deliver a safe and manageable future for humanity.
This assessment is based on an examination of the unique challenges faced by the United States, Brazil, India and Ghana in the context of rapid climate change.
A clear, actionable pathway to climate stability
Setting out a pathway to reverse the current climate trajectory, the report recommends the following priorities:
1. Advance global equity through finance, leadership and collaboration.
The report calls for wealthy nations like the US, whose development has been powered by fossil fuels, to acknowledge their moral debt and address power imbalances. This will entail loss and damage compensation, technology sharing and decisive global leadership.
2. Decouple well-being from fossil fuel consumption.
The energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources must be accelerated. Over-consumption, largely in the Global North, must be moderated, while developing countries, largely in the Global South, must be supported to improve and maintain economic well-being.
3. End fossil fuel subsidies and accelerate climate action
NDCs must show greatly enhanced ambition from every single nation if the safe pathway is to be achieved, with a focus on rapidly creating robust, sustainable policies at every level of human activity and achieving global Net Zero by 2050. This must entail a commitment to ending licences for fossil fuel activity and clear timelines for ending fossil fuel subsidies.
4. Protect biodiversity and indigenous communities
Biodiversity is a critical part of our global climate response and central to ensuring we first limit and then reverse temperature rises. Equally, we must ensure the protection of indigenous communities, respecting their rights and knowledge, alongside their important role in safeguarding ecosystems.
Commenting on the report Sir David King, chair of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group said:
“We should be in no doubt that the current trajectory of global temperature increases is hurtling humanity towards disaster. But as our latest report lays out, this outcome is not inevitable. A safe future for humanity is still within our grasp, but only if all nations take urgent action.
“Each further incremental increase in global temperatures will bring increasing devastation. A global consensus on climate action has so far proven near-impossible to achieve, but this should not prevent countries from stepping up their own efforts. Every nation must put everything they can towards their NDCs, to ensure the system is as ambitious and extensive as possible, while fairly addressing the needs of developing countries.”
Advancing global equity must become a priority
The report reaffirms the need for a multi-faceted approach to boosting global equity, and has highlighted the significance of technology sharing and loss and damage compensation as critical to strengthening the leadership of the global north.
This comes as the report’s assessment finds wealthier nations must address the sense of injustice that exists within the global south, by supporting ongoing economic development in nations such as Ghana and Brazil. This highlights the need for developed economies to take greater responsibility in tackling climate change.
Read the report here.
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