Science tells us there is a limit to how much pollution we can emit from
activities, like burning fossil fuels and clearing forests, before we breach
limits of the climate system ... The limit is know as the budget is know as an "Emissions Budget' and it is very small ... less than 3000 GTCO From Climate FairShares infographic
Civil society groups yesterday launched
a new online-tool providing the stark details of just how limited the space in the world's Carbon Budget remains and detailing what amount of space each country is allocated under UN Terms relative to "pollution targets and finance transfers" in the battle to combat climate change.
The infographic is designed from a metric which includes not only each nation's historic use of of carbon space but also that nation's current day economic status and statistics relative to inequality in terms of climate justice.
In an October 21 article for the Climate Hub The road to Paris, the Climate Equity Reference Calculator, and you, Tom Athanasiou, Executive Director of EcoEquity said, "The real problem is that the remaining carbon budgets are so small, and the time so short, and the fossil-cartel so powerful, and the need for low-carbon investment so pressing, that market/technology dynamics will not alone drive the necessary progress, at anything like the necessary speed. Any sufficiently rapid climate transition will of course seek to leverage these dynamics, but it will also demand the concerted and coordinated efforts of a large number of countries, and these countries must somehow agree to focus their financial and technological resources on investment programs that are designed to further the common goal of extremely rapid emissions reductions.
"This is a very tall order, but it can be met. But only if each nation sees the others to be doing their fair share in the common effort to rise to the climate challenge."
Athanasiou, along with the Stockholm Environment Institute, was one of the creators of the Climate Fairshares methodology which based its conclusions on input from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment, Working Group 1 on science and the studies of Richard Heede of Carbon Majors).
Climate FairShares works from the reality that "the climate crisis will require an emergency mobilization on an unprecedented scale" while taking into account the need for solutions "that focus on the needs of people, are fair, and reject false solutions that serve only the few."(From the Climate FairShares Project)
At yesterday's launch of the fairshares tool, Lidy Nacpil, of Jubilee South APMDD, referenced the devastation of the second typhoon to hit the Philippines in two years. "We will tell the truth about climate impacts on vulnerable and marginalised people and the truth about the scale of action required to confront the climate crisis," she said.
Do the Math
Asad Rehman, Head of International Climate at Friends of the Earth noted that as COP20 commenced "we called on governments to do the maths on climate change. This is that maths. It's tough to face up to these numbers but it will be much much harder to face the 4 or 5 degrees of warming that current proposals risks."
A statement signed by 200 organizations from the developing world demands that the developing countries meet their responsibilities and make drastic and immediate cuts to their emissions as well as contributing finance and technology to to the South to meet their "climate debt."
Additionally, developing countries are required to meet their "farishare" by adopting new sustainable methods of development.
The tool provides governments currently negotiating in Lima with specifics on the cuts to pollution and their financial commitments to prevent global warming from moving beyond 1.5 degrees C.
¨The latest IPCC science reports have made even clearer how little additional climate pollution the earth can tolerate before we’re risking irreversible catastrophic climate change," said Doctor Sivan Kartha, Senior Scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute.
"Based on those limits on climate pollution for the whole world, it becomes strikingly just how quickly emissions need to come down, across the world. It may be hard to do, but it’s dramatically easier than surviving 2,3,4 degrees of warming.
"The site shows not just what the whole world has to do, but it also helps people answer the fundamental question of the UN climate talks, what should each country do."
Some results of the site show the following countries must:
The United States
Cut domestic emissions by 65% on 1990 levels in 2025;
Provide USD 635 billion in finance for mitigation action internationally.
The United Kingdom
Cut domestic emissions by 75% on 1990 levels in 2025;
Provide USD 49 billion in finance for mitigation action internationally.
Philippines
Limit emissions to just 36% above current levels in 2025 domestically;
Secure international transfers worth USD 6 billion to reduce emissions by 36% on today's levels.
Ethiopia
Limit emissions to just 34% above current levels in 2025 domestically;
Secure international transfers worth USD 4 billion to bring emissions to 31% below today's levels.
China
Limit emissions to 37% above current levels in 2025 domestically;
Secure international transfers worth USD 498 billion to bring emissions to 27% below current levels.
"In Lima, governments must adopt a strict emissions budget and then agree to cuts based on science and equity. The idea everyone doing what ever they like will address the climate crisis is fanciful. The European Union and the U.S. have to stop the pretense that their inadequate targets will protect either their citizens or others in the world from threats to our food supplies and our lives and livelihoods. Ignoring the truth is simply a recipe for disaster," Mr Rehman said.
Negotiations continue in Lima, with proposals relating to the equitable sharing of the emissions budget remaining on the table.
(Jubilee South Asia Pacific assembled much of the material provided in this post.)
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