On Tuesday 21st November CCI presented the latest Talanoa Dialogue on financial flows.
Joe Robertson, Executive Director of CCI clarified what we are up against…..
In 1992 the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate change called for preventing dangerous human caused interference with the climate system, and in 2023 we are living with that dangerous interference. We know it is upon us, and we know we need to act quickly. Recent estimates suggest that more than half of the 67 million people displaced across the world, involuntarily displaced, are displaced by climate related causes. Many of them do not have rights of refugees. Recent science says that food systems are likely to experience simultaneous breadbasket failure, the failure of multiple food growing regions at the same time, and that this risk has been underestimated.
The Canadian, Australian and UK contributions highlighted the difficulty of weaning their economies off fossil fuel dependence in countries which profit the most from fossil fuels and suffer the least from their effects, although in recent years we are starting to catch up! Japan, which has not historically benefited from fossil fuel extraction, highlighted the problems with the chosen green(ish) energy path, the lack of opportunity for debate and urgency in implementation.
Other countries highlighted very individual examples of the effect of climate change and climate policies. ranging from the increased danger of flooding, unregulated mining, deforestation and plastic pollution. The very poignant Rumanian contribution really summed up the message….. consumer goods won’t buy happiness if they cost the earth.
All in all a sober and honest depiction of the complexity of the problem which faces us, made watchable by the determination of the Talanoa dialoguers to be an effective part of the solution!