Christian Aid reaction to IPCC climate report
Here is Christian Aid's response to the publication of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on Monday August 9.
Dr Kat Kramer, Christian Aid's climate policy lead, has been following the IPCC talks. She said: “Science has spoken: urgent climate action is needed to cut emissions rapidly and deeply or the whole world, especially the people on the frontline, will be plunged further into peril and poverty.
“This IPCC report puts carbon dioxide emissions firmly in the firing line, reinforcing the need for net zero emissions. These findings clearly show the need to end the fossil fuel era and to move to a future based on efficiency and renewables, while creating access to energy for those in poorer countries that currently lack it.
“So far political will to act has been wildly inadequate. Current national pledges put us on a pathway to a 2.4ºC world, which the IPCC shows would sentence people to more and fiercer heatwaves as well as droughts in some regions. Theses impacts will be most devastating to the world’s already-vulnerable people.
“This report shows that emissions cuts are vital. Despite what the oil and gas giants would try to make us believe, carbon dioxide removal cannot be relied upon: such methods can have adverse effects on both humans and nature such as water availability, food production and biodiversity.
“The good news is that if we do act to cut emissions on the scale and at the speed needed, we can avert more extreme impacts. This is a matter of intergenerational justice.
“Poorer countries and people in the global south have high hopes that leaders will take the ambitious action needed. The COP26 summit needs to deliver real progress in pledges to cut emissions and provide financing to vulnerable nations which has been promised but not yet delivered. Rich nations must also act to provide finance to address the permanent losses and damages suffered by countries which did nothing to cause them. These catastrophic impacts will grow exponentially in the future unless we achieve net-zero. The package currently on the table is perilously inadequate.
“COP26 needs to deliver urgent climate action. If it does so it will also be a source of climate hope for a world in need of it.”
Fredrick Njehu, Christian Aid’s Senior Climate Change & Energy Advisor for Africa, said: “The scientists of the IPCC have laid out the sheer scale of the climate crisis and the greater risks we face unless we act urgently.
“We’ve seen in recent weeks heatwaves in North America and floods in India, Europe, China and London. In Africa we have lived with the destructive nature of the climate emergency. Whether it was Cyclone Idai, changing rainfall patterns or overbearing heat, Africa has been waiting for the rest of the world to catch up and act on climate change for years.
“The important thing now is that rich world Governments make up for lost time and act quickly to reduce emissions and deliver promised financial support for the vulnerable.”
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