Citizens' Climate Lobby UK

Lobbying for a carbon fee and dividend

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Guterres states that “Humanity is on thin ice — and that ice is melting fast. Our world needs climate action on all fronts — everything, everywhere, all at once.”

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The newly released IPCC Synthesis report reiterates the fact that we must act now if we stand any chance of preventing global temperatures rising above 1.5C. Guterres called for rich countries to stop fossil fuel exploration now and coal, oil and gas consumption by 2040.

IPCC Press Release: Urgent climate action can secure a liveable future for all

INTERLAKEN, Switzerland, March 20, 2023 — There are multiple, feasible and effective options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to human-caused climate change, and they are available now, said scientists in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released today.

“Mainstreaming effective and equitable climate action will not only reduce losses and damages for nature and people, it will also provide wider benefits,” said IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee. “This Synthesis Report underscores the urgency of taking more ambitious action and shows that, if we act now, we can still secure a liveable sustainable future for all.”

In 2018, IPCC highlighted the unprecedented scale of the challenge required to keep warming to 1.5°C. Five years later, that challenge has become even greater due to a continued increase in greenhouse gas emissions.  The pace and scale of what has been done so far, and current plans, are insufficient to tackle climate change.

More than a century of burning fossil fuels as well as unequal and unsustainable energy and land use has led to global warming of 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels. This has resulted in more frequent and more intense extreme weather events that have caused increasingly dangerous impacts on nature and people in every region of the world.

Every increment of warming results in rapidly escalating hazards. More intense heatwaves, heavier rainfall and other weather extremes further increase risks for human health and ecosystems. In every region, people are dying from extreme heat. Climate-driven food and water insecurity is expected to increase with increased warming. When the risks combine with other adverse events, such as pandemics or conflicts, they become even more difficult to manage.

Losses and damages in sharp focus

The report, approved during a week-long session in Interlaken, brings in to sharp focus the losses and damages we are already experiencing and will continue into the future, hitting the most vulnerable people and ecosystems especially hard. Taking the right action now could result in the transformational change essential for a sustainable, equitable world.

“Climate justice is crucial because those who have contributed least to climate change are being disproportionately affected,” said Aditi Mukherji, one of the 93 authors of this Synthesis Report, the closing chapter of the Panel’s sixth assessment.

“Almost half of the world’s population lives in regions that are highly vulnerable to climate change. In the last decade, deaths from floods, droughts and storms were 15 times higher in highly vulnerable regions,“ she added.

In this decade, accelerated action to adapt to climate change is essential to close the gap between existing adaptation and what is needed. Meanwhile, keeping warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels requires deep, rapid and sustained greenhouse gas emissions reductions in all sectors. Emissions should be decreasing by now and will need to be cut by almost half by 2030, if warming is to be limited to 1.5°C.

Clear way ahead

The solution lies in climate resilient development. This involves integrating measures to adapt to climate change with actions to reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions in ways that provide wider benefits.

For example: access to clean energy and technologies improves health, especially for women and children; low-carbon electrification, walking, cycling and public transport enhance air quality, improve health, employment opportunities and deliver equity. The economic benefits for people’s health from air quality improvements alone would be roughly the same, or possibly even larger than the costs of reducing or avoiding emissions.

Climate resilient development becomes progressively more challenging with every increment of warming. This is why the choices made in the next few years will play a critical role in deciding our future and that of generations to come.

To be effective, these choices need to be rooted in our diverse values, worldviews and knowledges, including scientific knowledge, Indigenous Knowledge and local knowledge. This approach will facilitate climate resilient development and allow locally appropriate, socially acceptable solutions.

“The greatest gains in wellbeing could come from prioritizing climate risk reduction for low-income and marginalised communities, including people living in informal settlements,” said Christopher Trisos, one of the report’s authors. “Accelerated climate action will only come about if there is a many-fold increase in finance. Insufficient and misaligned finance is holding back progress.”

Enabling sustainable development

There is sufficient global capital to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions if existing barriers are reduced. Increasing finance to climate investments is important to achieve global climate goals. Governments, through public funding and clear signals to investors, are key in reducing these barriers. Investors, central banks and financial regulators can also play their part.

There are tried and tested policy measures that can work to achieve deep emissions reductions and climate resilience if they are scaled up and applied more widely. Political commitment, coordinated policies, international cooperation, ecosystem stewardship and inclusive governance are all important for effective and equitable climate action.

If technology, know-how and suitable policy measures are shared, and adequate finance is made available now, every community can reduce or avoid carbon-intensive consumption. At the same time, with significant investment in adaptation, we can avert rising risks, especially for vulnerable groups and regions.

Climate, ecosystems and society are interconnected. Effective and equitable conservation of approximately 30-50% of the Earth’s land, freshwater and ocean will help ensure a healthy planet. Urban areas offer a global scale opportunity for ambitious climate action that contributes to sustainable development.

Changes in the food sector, electricity, transport, industry, buildings and land-use can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, they can make it easier for people to lead low-carbon lifestyles, which will also improve health and wellbeing. A better understanding of the consequences of overconsumption can help people make more informed choices.

“Transformational changes are more likely to succeed where there is trust, where everyone works together to prioritise risk reduction, and where benefits and burdens are shared equitably,” Lee said. “We live in a diverse world in which everyone has different responsibilities and different opportunities to bring about change. Some can do a lot while others will need support to help them manage the change.”

The Synthesis Report Summary for Policymakers key finding C7 states that: 

Finance, technology and international cooperation are critical enablers for accelerated climate action. If climate goals are to be achieved, both adaptation and mitigation financing would need to increase many-fold. There is sufficient global capital to close the global investment gaps but there are barriers to redirect capital to climate action. Enhancing technology innovation systems is key to accelerate the widespread adoption of technologies and practices. Enhancing international cooperation is possible through multiple channels.

Climate Income is one means of redirecting capital to climate action by pricing fossil fuels out of the market. Citizens’ Climate International and 19 affiliate groups, including CCL UK, are also currently campaigning for the financial reforms needed to remove the barriers to redirecting capital with the current Bretton Woods Action.  We are seeking a dialogue with the World Bank to press for the financial reforms set out by Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados in the Bridgetown Initiative last September.

New national and global projects for CCL UK

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As an affiliate of Citizens’ Climate International (CCI), CCL UK aims to build the political will for a liveable world and is nonpartisan – our aim is to put the case for Climate Income to every major UK party.

We recently succeeded in arranging a meeting and starting a dialogue with Labour MPs Alan Whitehead (Shadow Minister for Energy and the Green New Deal) and Kerry McCarthy (Shadow Minister for Climate Change). We asked Cathy Orlando, Program Director CCI and CCL Canada Director to join the meeting to offer an insight into the Canadian version of Climate Income, the Climate Action Incentive. Cathy took up the offer with alacrity (no air miles were involved) and joined the meeting.

Here’s what she had to say afterwards:

On Monday, February 20, CCL Sudbury member Sophia Mathur was a guest on the Reasons to Be Cheerful podcast with former UK Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, and Sony Award-winning radio host Geoff Lloyd. It is a small world, because one week after the podcast was aired Sophia’s mom, Cathy Orlando, lobbied Labour MPs Alan Whitehead (Shadow Minister for Energy and the Green New Deal) and Kerry McCarthy (Shadow Minister for Climate Change), alongside CCL UK members Gina Cook, James Collis, Amanda Lake, Katie Clague, and Ed Atkinson. Cathy’s daughter Sophia Mathur spoke with a wisdom and sureness beyond her years and is an inspiration to us all!

4 CCL UK members are also currently involved in a project led by Cathy Orlando alongside CCI members from 19 other countries. We are planning to contact the World Bank to push for the financial reforms needed to unlock the barriers to global energy transition and ‘end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity in a sustainable way.’

CCI reports that:

At COP 27, PM Mia Mottley introduced a plan for 500 billion dollars of public money to be invested to unlock five trillion dollars in investment. For perspective, at COP 26, PM Mia Mottley cited a statistic that by November 2021 nine trillion dollars of public money was used to buffer economies globally during the COVID pandemic.

The public money at the World Bank belongs to the people of this planet. It is our right to kindly ask that it be used to create an equitable and thriving planet.

Trillions of dollars of private sector money could be leveraged at the World Bank Group towards a thriving and equitable planet. It is our right and responsibility as citizens all over the world to help with this transformation. It is our money.

Watch this space!

Citizens’ Climate International Response to United Nations Security Council Warning – ‘United Nations Secretary-General warns of ‘biblical’ wave of climate migration’

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In (a) historic warning to the Security Council, Secretary-General Guterres linked human rights in the face of climate breakdown to international peace and security.

Global heating and related climate disruption are happening faster than expected. We are seeing the effects of climate pollution, like warmer air and water, ice loss, prolonged droughts, year-round wildfire seasons, and rising sea levels, interact and compound each other’s secondary effects.

Rapid sea-level rise means coastal jurisdictions are generally not prepared to deal with the hard impacts of persistent flooding and unprecedented storm surges. This can result in some major population centres becoming unlivable after shock events.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, is now warning of an unprecedented crisis of mass migration and destabilisation. In his remarks to the Security Council, Guterres called climate change a threat multiplier and said:
“Low-lying communities and entire countries could disappear for ever. We would witness a mass exodus of entire populations on a biblical scale. And we would see ever fiercer competition for fresh water, land and other resources.”
He highlighted reporting from NASA that: “Antarctica is losing an average of 150 billion tons of ice mass annually,” and “The Greenland ice cap is melting even faster — losing 270 billion tons per year.”

As ocean heating and melting of ice on land rapidly advance, so does the loss of sea ice in polar regions. Antarctica has been found to have, at this writing, the lowest sea ice extent on record. This is a climate disruption accelerator, since white reflective ice is replaced with dark seawater that absorbs far more heat. As people flee coastal communities and seek safety in major population centres further inland, or in other countries, their human rights need to be honoured. They continue to have a right to lead healthy, free, safe, and productive lives.

The Secretary-General noted the dangerous gaps in international law, and added that:
“People’s human rights do not disappear because their homes do.”

How the world will adjust to accommodate hundreds of millions of climate refugees in coming decades remains an open question. The early warning systems needed to reduce risk and enhance livability in vulnerable areas are not yet in place for much of the world. Food systems are not secure against the intensifying pattern of climate shocks, so repeated price spikes and inflation-induced instability are likely.

There remain significant conflicts between agreed international legal protections and the national laws needed to recognise those protections in practice. Resolving those legal conflicts—so that people displaced by climate-related breakdown of their natural and institutional environment, can live healthy, free, safe, and productive lives—is a structural imperative of our times.

As climate disruption advances, all nations will have to be far better prepared to welcome refugees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stark warning of the threat of rising seas from the United Nations Security Council

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During its first ever debate on the implications of rising sea levels it is reported that the UN Security Council heard that ‘Rising seas pose “unthinkable” risks to billions around the world, with profound implications for security, international law, human rights and the very fabric of societies’.

Antonio Guterrres addressed the debate……..

Mr. President, Dr. Ian Borg, Minister for Foreign and European Affairs and Trade of Malta, Excellencies,

I thank the government of Malta for shining a light on the dramatic implications of rising sea levels on global peace and security.

Rising seas are sinking futures.

Sea-level rise is not only a threat in itself.

It is a threat-multiplier.

For the hundreds of millions of people living in small island developing states and other low-lying coastal areas around the world, sea-level rise is a torrent of trouble. 

Rising seas threaten lives, and jeopardise access to water, food and healthcare.

Saltwater intrusion can decimate jobs and entire economies in key industries like agriculture, fisheries and tourism.

It can damage or destroy vital infrastructure — including transportation systems, hospitals and schools, especially when combined with extreme weather events linked to the climate crisis.

And rising seas threaten the very existence of some low-lying communities and even countries. 

The World Meteorological Organization has just released a new compilation of data that spells out the grave danger of rising seas.

Global average sea levels have risen faster since 1900 than over any preceding century in the last 3,000 years. 

The global ocean has warmed faster over the past century than at any time in the past 11,000 years.

Meanwhile, the WMO tells us that even if global heating is miraculously limited to 1.5 degrees, there will still be a sizeable sea level rise.

But every fraction of a degree counts. If temperatures rise by 2 degrees, that level rise could double, with further temperature increases bringing exponential sea level increases.  

Under any scenario, countries like Bangladesh, China, India and the Netherlands are all at risk.

Mega-cities on every continent will face serious impacts including Lagos, Maputo, Bangkok, Dhaka, Jakarta, Mumbai, Shanghai, Copenhagen, London, Los Angeles, New York, Buenos Aires and Santiago.

The danger is especially acute for nearly 900 million people who live in coastal zones at low elevations — that’s one out of ten people on earth.

Some coastlines have already seen triple the average rate of sea-level rise.

I have seen with my own eyes how people in Small Island Developing States in the Western Pacific are facing sea-rise levels up to four times the global average. 

In the Caribbean, rising seas have contributed to the devastation of local livelihoods in the tourism and agriculture sectors.

Rising seas and other climate impacts are already forcing some relocations in Fiji, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and elsewhere.

Flooding and coastal erosion in West Africa are damaging infrastructure and communities, undermining farming and often costing lives. 

In North Africa, saltwater intrusion is contaminating land and freshwater resources, destroying crops and livelihoods alike.

Somalia is also grappling with saltwater intrusion, contributing to competition over scarce freshwater resources. 

And around the world, a hotter planet is melting glaciers and ice sheets.

According to NASA, Antarctica is losing an average of 150 billion tons of ice mass annually.

The Greenland ice cap is melting even faster — losing 270 billion tons per year.

And consider the hundreds of millions of people living in the river basins of the Himalayas.

We have already seen how Himalayan melts have worsened flooding in Pakistan.

But as these glaciers recede over the coming decades, over time, the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers will shrink.

And rising sea levels combined with a deep intrusion of saltwater will make large parts of their huge deltas simply uninhabitable.

We see similar threats in the Mekong Delta and beyond.

The consequences of all of this are unthinkable.

Low-lying communities and entire countries could disappear forever.

We would witness a mass exodus of entire populations on a biblical scale. 

And we would see ever-fiercer competition for fresh water, land and other resources.

So, Excellencies, the impact of rising seas is already creating new sources of instability and conflict.

We must meet this rising tide of insecurity with action across three areas.

First — we must address the root cause of rising seas, the climate crisis.

Our world is hurtling past the 1.5-degree warming limit that a liveable future requires, and with present policies, is careening towards 2.8 degrees — a death sentence for vulnerable countries. 

We urgently need more concerted action to reduce emissions and ensure climate justice.

Developing countries must have the resources to adapt and build resilience against climate disaster.

Among other things, this means delivering on the loss and damage fund, making good on the $100-billion climate finance commitment to developing countries, doubling adaptation finance, and leveraging massive private financing at a reasonable cost. (My emphasis) – Climate Income, especially if globally applied, would go a long way in sending the right market signals needed to make decarbonisation the right financial move for states and businesses.

Second — we must broaden our understanding of the root causes of insecurity.

That means identifying and addressing a much wider range of factors that undermine security — from poverty, discrimination and inequality, violations of human rights, to environmental disasters like rising sea levels.
 
That is why, for example, the Peacebuilding Fund is actively supporting grassroots resilience efforts against the effects of climate change.

We must also improve foresight and early warnings to prepare and protect vulnerable communities.

One prime example is our plan to ensure that early warning systems against natural disasters protect every person on earth within five years.

Third — we must address the impacts of rising seas across legal and human rights frameworks.

Rising sea levels are — literally — shrinking landmasses, a cause of possible disputes related to territorial integrity and maritime spaces.

The current legal regime must look to the future and address any gaps in existing frameworks.  

Yes, this means international refugee law.

But is also means innovative legal and practical solutions to address the impact of rising sea levels on forced human displacement and on the very existence of the land territory of some states.

People’s human rights do not disappear because their homes do.

Last year, the International Law Commission considered this issue and explored a range of potential solutions.

This includes continuing statehood despite loss of territory, ceding or assigning portions of territory to an affected state, or even establishing confederations of states.

These discussions are critical to finding solutions, and I appreciate the active consideration by delegations in the Sixth Committee.

We must keep working to protect affected populations and secure their essential human rights.

Excellencies,

The Security Council has a critical role to play in building the political will required to address the devastating security challenges arising from rising seas. 

We must all work to continue turning up the volume on this critical issue, and supporting the lives, livelihoods and communities of people living on the front lines of this crisis.

Thank you.

Report on the rest of the proceedings (from UN News).

Csaba Kőrösi, the current President of the General Assembly, recalled that climate change – “the greatest challenge of our generation” – was the issue most raised by world leaders during the Assembly’s last high-level debate.

Citing projections that between 250 and 400 million people will likely need new homes in new locations in fewer than 80 years, he also warned of devastating impacts for the world’s “breadbaskets,” especially fertile deltas along the Nile, Mekong and other rivers.

Meanwhile, climate-induced sea level rise is also provoking new legal questions that are at the very core of national and State identity.

He urged the Council to recognise the significance of climate action as a key tool for peace-building, stressing that the data and frameworks to defend against the sea level threat already exist.

“What is needed now – as ever – is the political will to act,” he said.

Made stateless by the sea

Bogdan Aurescu, Romanian foreign minister and Co-Chair of the International Law Commission Study Group on Sea-Level Rise, agreed that climate change-related sea level poses a real risk to over two-thirds of UN Member States.

Outlining a range of sea level rise implications, he said coastlines are being “pushed” inward, affecting baselines from which countries’ maritime zones are measured and therefore threatening countries’ access to resources.

While several actions are available to protect countries’ coastlines, including physical barriers, their costs remain out of reach for many of the countries worst affected.

Mr. Aurescu emphasised the need to better harness international law to support countries most at risk from sea level rise, pointing out that the International Law Commission recently added the topic “Sea-level rise in relation to international law” to its agenda.

Among other threats, he said urgent efforts are needed to avoid possible situations of “de facto statelessness,” including by preserving the fundamental rights and identities of people forced to flee their home countries as a result of climate change.

Impunity and inaction

Also addressing the Security Council was Coral Pasisi, Director of Climate Change of the Pacific Community and President of the non-governmental organisation, Tofia Niue.

She warned that, by 2050 – “within the lifetime of our children and grandchildren” – sea level rise will have exceeded at least one metre for most small island developing States, a shift that will last for thousands of years.

Listing severe impacts already facing communities today, from coral reef bleaching to salt water intrusion, she decried the international community’s continued flouting of responsibility and impunity in failing to act to stop climate change.

“This is a security issue of paramount importance to the Pacific Region,” she said, emphasising that the security fallout of unaddressed sea level rise will fall directly under the Council’s remit.

She also expressed her hope that the General Assembly will soon adopt a resolution, put forward by Vanuatu, requesting an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the obligations of States vis-á-vis climate change.

 

Are oil companies really doing the best for their shareholders, let alone the earth?

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This last week brought news of record profits for oil and gas companies. The current crisis has led to a situation where companies also feel able to slow down progress on their self declared commitments to reaching Net Zero by 2050. BP has cut its 2030 emissions reduction target from 35-40% to 20%-30% of 2019 levels, as a consequence oil and gas production is now planned to fall by 25% rather than the previously planned 40% by the end of the decade!

In a world where the warnings of bodies like the IPCC and IEA have been downplayed there is evidently still a strong demand for, and a healthy profit to be had, from oil and gas production; in part because we have failed to price pollution in the most effective way to send the strongest market signal to promote decarbonisation.

Given the current economic ‘climate’ slowing progress towards their self declared aims of Net Zero by 2050 may currently seem a pragmatic and sensible action by company boards, but is it? Many commentators point out that slowing down the move to Net Zero now will lead to ‘stranded assets’ in the long term, which won’t do shareholders any favours!

The legal action group Client Earth is bringing a derivative action law suit against Shell arguing that they are failing to protect the company against such future failure, in short, mismanaging climate risk – current plans would only lead to a 5% drop in emissions by 2030. Paul Benson, Client Earth’s senior lawyer states that: ..

We’re taking Shell’s Board of Directors to court for failing to move away from fossil fuels fast enough.

We believe that Shell’s Board is in breach of its legal duties under the UK Companies Act to manage risks to the company that could harm its future success. And the climate crisis presents the biggest risk of them all.

This will be the first time ever that a company’s Board has been challenged on its failure to properly prepare for the energy transition.

CCL UK applauds this action by Client Earth and wishes it every success, please do support Client Earth if you feel able.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Net Zero consultation report acknowledges the government needs to do more and emphasises the benefits of doing so…

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The report on the Net Zero consultation, Mission Zero-Independent Review of Net Zero authored by Chris Skidmore, has been published. The consultation received about 1800 responses including a formal response from CCL UK and 31 responses from individual members. Possibly contrary to the expectations of the commissioners of the consultation, participants felt that moving to Net Zero would be a boost rather than a hindrance to the economy!

The Executive summary states that…..

The Net Zero Review travelled to all four nations of the UK, received over 1800 responses to the Call for Evidence, and held more than 50 roundtables, making it one of the largest engagement exercises on net zero in the UK. We heard a clear message from businesses, organisations, individuals, and local government across the country: net zero is creating a new era of opportunity, but government, industry, and individuals need to act to make the most of the opportunities, reduce costs, and ensure we deliver successfully. 

 The Review has heard loud and clear that net zero is the economic opportunity of the 21st century. The evidence presented to the Review has shown that the pace of recent change has created a rush of economic opportunity at a massive, global scale. With more than 90% of global GDP covered by a net zero target there is now huge global momentum to reach net zero and capture the economic opportunities. This is driven by businesses of all sizes who have recognised that net zero can help them grow. 

We must act decisively to seize the opportunities in a global race. We are not alone in seeing the opportunity around the world. Countries and businesses have woken up. From the USA’s $369 billion investment in clean technology through the Inflation Reduction Act and the ‘France 2030’ investment plan in France to the EU’s ‘Fit for 55’ programme it is clear we are in an international race for capital, skills, and the industries of the future. We must act quickly, and in collaboration with our international partners, to cement the UK as a prime destination for international capital and unlock export opportunities for British businesses around the globe. Failing to do so will mean missed opportunities. 

We must move quickly. We have heard from businesses that economic opportunities are being missed today because of weaknesses in the UK’s investment environment – whether that be skills shortages or inconsistent policy commitment. Moving quickly must include spending money. We know that investing in net zero today will be cheaper than delaying, as well as increasing the economic and climate benefits. Analysis suggests that delaying action by ten years could mean UK debt could be 23% of GDP higher in 2050, doubling the fiscal cost of achieving net zero and not capitalising on economies of scale. Oxford research has shown that a fast transition to net zero based on scaling up key green technologies will continue to drive their costs down, and transitioning to a decarbonised energy system based on green technologies by 2050 can save the world at least $12 trillion, compared to continuing our current levels of fossil fuel use.

Ultimately, the benefits of net zero will outweigh the costs. In some estimates, the UK would see approximately 2% additional growth in GDP, through the benefits from new jobs, increased economic activity, reduced fossil fuel imports and cost savings (for example cheaper household bills). These estimates do not reflect the risk and disruption of not acting, which would run so clearly counter to the prevailing expectations of business and global trends. For all that there are some risks to the public from the transition, considered in detail in this Review, for the individual the benefits of net zero will – particularly with the right interventions by government – outweigh the costs. This Review sets out recommendations to provide clarity and certainty to businesses and investors and offers a view on how to back up the UK’s ambitious net zero vision with clear delivery pathways.

It was emphasised that the government needed to be clearer and more consistent with long term policies….

The Review has listened and engaged with almost every sector to identify the barriers to future delivery, as well as the opportunities that could be seized in the future. Overwhelmingly, the common message has been the need for clarity, certainty, consistency, and continuity from government. Sectors have indicated that a long-term, stable investment plan is required. We have identified ten priority missions to harness public and private action out to 2035:

The ten priorities comprise: 

  • Improving the grid and infrastructure, 
  • Full scale deployment of solar, onshore wind and nuclear, 
  • A clear plan for industrial decarbonisation, using hydrogen and CCUS, 
  • Stimulating the move to a circular economy, 
  • Unblocking local planning to enable local communities to act on Net Zero, 
  • Working towards gas free homes by 2035 including implementing a ban on new boiler sales in 2033 and implementing a Net Zero Performance Certificate (the current EPC rewards gas heating), 
  • Working towards Net Zero nature and boosting R&D.

None of this will happen without a step change in the government’s approach to delivering net zero. For all the UK’s past success and future ambition, the Review has heard from many respondents frustrated by a lack of long-term thinking, siloed behaviour from government departments, and uncertainty over the length of funding commitments. Evidence suggests this is holding back deployment of green technologies, hampering investment across all sectors, and inhibiting the ability to create British jobs. To unlock this, and bring the clarity, certainty, and consistency desperately needed, the Review recommends:

  • An over-arching government financing strategy by the end of 2023, giving long-term clarity to business and investors and ensuring we capitalise on our industrial strengths
  • A long-term programmatic approach to net zero projects and considering longer-term funding certainty for major priorities for net zero – where we know that long-term policy commitment will be essential for success
  • An Office for Net Zero Delivery, responsible for placing net zero delivery at the heart of government thinking, ensuring best practice for key delivery projects, and taking ownership of net zero priorities where they span multiple departments 

Sadly the benefits from Climate Income – a consistent, predictable carbon price with the revenue returned to households to offset the rising costs of fossil fuels and retrofitting, has not been grasped. The report does acknowledge that there would be more public acceptance of carbon pricing if the revenue was hypothecated, citing an article in the respected Nature Climate Change journal “When carbon revenues go towards the general government budget, some studies have found that public acceptability is lower. If instead carbon revenues are earmarked for a specific purpose—notably as targeted green investments or transfers to particularly affected groups—citizens report greater acceptability of carbon pricing.” (Making Carbon pricing work for citizens, Nature Climate Change, 8, pp. 669–677 (2018)). The report therefore suggests that North Sea Transition plans should include tax revenue going to a Net Zero Fund.

The report does state that ETS should be reformed; it is not currently aligned to net Zero and only covers 18% of emissions. Hopefully reform should, at the very least, make the ETS more consistent, perhaps the government might follow the example of the Austrian Klimabonus and impose a Climate Income on the fossil fuels used in buildings and transport (sectors which the government removed from ETS expansion plans)?

This week we also learnt that Exxon knew about but downplayed the threat of fossil fuel induced climate change as early as the 1970s (The Clash got it wrong – the sun wasn’t zooming in and the Ice Age wasn’t coming!) and the CEO of the UAE state oil company was announced as President of COP28.

We must hope that current and future UK governments will acknowledge and act on the recommendations of this report and not betray the hopes of COP26; sending the clear message that the UK government meant what it said when Net Zero was enshrined in law and ideally going further with fiscal policies which will facilitate speedier, smoother decarbonisation – such as Climate Income!

 

Outgoing UN High-Level Climate Action Champion argues that Net Zero could be reached by the early 2040’s if progress made by the business community isn’t thwarted by governments.

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The outgoing UN High-Level Climate Action champion, Nigel Topping, has stated that the world could reach Net Zero by the early 2040s, reiterating what other bodies, including Citizens’ Climate International, have been saying. During the two years he was in office he working on encouraging businesses to join the UN Race to Zero initiative which has been joined by over 8,300 businesses and 3,000 organisations including cities and local government districts.

Governments, he argued,  are failing to comprehend the willingness of business to act fast on climate change…“Governments could be way bolder in setting targets, and back their scientists, engineers, businesses, banks, cities to come up with solutions,” …. “The moonshot analogy is not inappropriate.” The UK Climate Change Committee, he says, has shown how the UK could reach NZ by 2042,….“Given that we’ve now got California and Germany saying 2045 is their target, I think you can argue quite strongly that the whole world could get to net zero in the early 2040s, and in many sectors in the late 2030s,”…“The lesson [from the pandemic] that I still don’t think we’ve learnt enough is that we can do unbelievable things, governments can turn on a dime if they need do, and the government/private sector relationship can be transformed to deliver solutions way, way faster, if we really put ourselves on an emergency footing.” “I think that squeeze is coming, because it’s a squeeze between the growing realisation of just how bad the damages are [from the climate crisis], and growing confidence – which is the real lesson I’d like us to take from Covid, which is that we’re amazing. We should back ourselves more,”

Topping cites the upsurge in EV production and take up as an example of what happens when goals are set….“Once you’ve named an end date, it’s a really powerful signal. Not all markets have agreed, but once you’ve reached [a large proportion], you can go much faster,” he said. “Europe, and the US, and the rate that the Chinese and Indians are changing – it’s all over.” … “There’s much more momentum in the system than most of the analysis suggests,” he said. Predictions of the growth of renewable energy and technologies such as electric vehicles and batteries had proved too conservative in recent years, as sales have surged and technology has improved rapidly.

The current resurgence of support for fossil fuels, he argues is temporary – “We’re maybe in the last huge bonanza of oil and gas profits. Maybe there’ll be another one, but shareholders will demand that those who can’t invest in the transition [to clean energy] will just have to give their money back to shareholders to allocate it,”

“A lot of this grows exponentially, if you look at where we’re at now [in terms of reductions in greenhouse gas emissions], it never looks good enough. But if you look at the trajectory [for low-carbon technologies] it can be much more encouraging.” “China is quite happy for the west to label it as a coal problem while it develops a global competitive leadership in [clean] sector after sector. And India is on the same track now. But you show me how many times western commentators point at India or China as competitors rather than polluters,” he said. “I think it’s a huge strategic mistake to underestimate how clearly [countries such as China and India] see this as the future.”

This analysis offers hope and suggests that many businesses have the will to innovate but need the support of governments, including the implementation of progressive carbon pricing to ‘level the playing field’ with fossil fuelled manufacturing, as endorsed by bodies like the IMF and ICC

 

Hope for the New Year – What Citizens’ Climate Lobby UK and Citizens’ Climate International achieved last year!

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Happy New Year everyone – it looks like there is still a long way to go to get across the urgency of the climate crisis as Sunak fails to mention it in his 5 point pledge and the Environmental Audit Committee criticises another year of wasted opportunities.  Here, however, is an encouraging round up of what Citizens’ Climate International members, including CCL UK, achieved in 2022, taken from the latest CCI newsletter.

You will notice the important contribution CCL UK has made this year (highlighted): a special thanks to the instigator and chief author of the Carbon Pricing and the Cost of Living Crisis, Professor Dave Waltham.

2022 has been a year of tectonic shifts. In some ways, the calendar of this year qualifies as what UN Secretary-General Guterres called “an atlas of human suffering”—with climate, conflict, COVID, and major food system disruptions subjecting vulnerable populations to unthinkable risk and harm. 2022 has also revealed, however, that authoritarian systems are not as accepted or ascendant as many had come to believe. 2022 showed us that accountability, resilience, the protection of innocents, and legitimacy are inextricably linked. The future can and must be climate-smart, and that will require openness, participation, and inclusion.

In 2022, CCI provided education and empowerment to volunteer chapters in 76 countries. Our volunteers welcomed new members, trained and supported each other, and worked on Five Levers for building political will: chapter development; meeting with public officials; media relations; community engagement; connecting with trusted leaders. To support their work:

  • In January 2022, we started a series of monthly check-in calls for volunteer leaders, on the 2nd Tuesday of every month.
  • We held our first global Month of Action and created a new Volunteer Activity reporting form, to gather reports from the field.
  • We also established this CCI Newsletter, including the monthly ‘Shape your world’ editions, as a detailed and trusted information resource for people inside our organization and our wider community of friends and allies.
  • Volunteers in Nigeria led community education and engagement events and gathered to meet with lawmakers, to share stakeholder insights on policies that can be good for climate, recovery, and sustainable development.
  • Volunteers in Zimbabwe supported the Manica Youth Assembly (MAYA)—a non-profit, community-based effort to empower young people and women to participate in public affairs and implement solutions, and held a national Tree-Planting Day event in Mutare, in December.
  • Rituraj Phukan, leader of the CCI volunteer chapter in Assam, India, was recently honored with a Sanctuary Wildlife Service Award as one of “the heroes whose steps we hope many more will follow,” the Sanctuary Nature Foundation said.
  • Volunteers in Latin America organized 70 events to spread awareness and build political will—including 12 capacity building workshops, 19 reading and film discussions, presentations in national, regional, and international forums, coalition building events, blogs, meeting with lawmakers, and implementation of the Escazú Agreement.
  • Volunteers in Canada held a national conference, met with provincial and national lawmakers, and marked a watershed moment, as Canada became the first nation to send climate income cheques directly to citizens.
  • Alex Neufeldt and Sophia Mathur, two CCL Canada volunteers, were among those whose environmental activism was honored with the 2022 Doris Anderson award.
  • Volunteers in the United Kingdom produced a major report on Carbon Pricing and the Cost of Living Crisis, finding the right policy design could relieve inflation pressures and address energy poverty, while transitioning the UK more quickly to a climate-friendly energy system.
  • Citizens’ Climate Europe volunteers worked to build coalitions of support for carbon pricing policies that are good for people and local economies.

COP27: For the challenging logistics of the COP27 in Egypt, our delegation streamlined, focused, and spread out across the process, connecting stakeholders to policy and advocating for human rights, open participation, increased ambition, and inclusive investment in climate-resilient development.

  • We welcomed the first COP acknowledgment of the human right to a clean, healthy environment, as well as the intensifying call to integrate human rights into all climate crisis response.
  • As people across the world suffered unprecedented and spreading hunger in 2022, we supported a formal COP27 side event on food system risks and good food finance.
  • Isatis Cintrón—CCI Latin America coordinator—worked to advance the ACE Observatory Assessment Framework to measure progress towards a whole-of-society participatory approach to climate governance.

We highlight some of our COP27 reports and briefing notes below.

Biodiversity: CCI sent a delegation to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) negotiations for the first time this year.

  • Our core message was: We are nature; the health and resilience of biodiverse ecosystems is critical to sustaining human health and wellbeing.
  • The Montreal conference resulted in adoption of a new Global Biodiversity Framework, centering on a goal of protecting 30% of land and ocean by 2030, while mobilizing hundreds of billions of dollars in an unprecedented effort to restore and safeguard biodiversity.
  • That plan needs to turn into action.

G7: In 2022, CCI also supported major progress toward honoring and uplifting the role of women as stakeholders and as leaders, through networks connected to the G7 process. Cathy Orlando served as a W7 advisor, and CCI held a Talanoa Dialogue for Women in All their Diversity, to provide stakeholder insights to the G7 and other international processes.

G20: CCI volunteers also coordinated to send more than 1,100 personal letters from 71 countries to leaders of the G20 countries, urging them to “follow the money” and shift finance flows to climate-smart, sustainable and equitable priorities.

Carbon pricing is not only about energy. It is about limiting the climate destruction of everyday goods that move across the world.

2022 saw expansion of the reach of carbon pricing policies supported by CCI and our network of citizen volunteers. Four key news items highlight the progress made:

  • In July, volunteers across Canada celebrated their country becoming the first in the world to issue climate income cheques directly to citizens—an outcome they had worked toward since 2010.
  • In October, Austria launched its Klimabonus program, paying rebates from carbon tax revenues to households. CCEU volunteers have met with Austrian officials to learn about Klimabonus and share insights with others.
  • The European Union moved forward with its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which will incentivize trading partners to price carbon pollution.
  • Progress on non-market approaches under Article 6.8 of the Paris Agreement creates opportunity for more nations to join carbon pricing clubs.

In 2022, CCI began tracking policies and mechanisms related to implementation of climate income systems. In 2023, CCI will be using its position on the Carbon Pricing Leadership Advisory Group to advance and diversify consideration of climate income policies and non-market approaches.

  • Adapting the PARIS Principles for fair, effective, and efficient carbon pricing to enhance innovation and implementation around non-market climate cooperation will provide a foundation for this work.
  • The Citizens’ Climate UK report on Carbon Pricing and Cost-of-Living will serve as a case study for the kind of policy analysis that should be undertaken to ensure benefits for local communities, fiscal stability, and climate resilience.

Resilience Intelligence

Our Resilience Intelligence program grew out of diplomatic roundtables that consistently brought calls for connecting finance to drivers of hidden cost and co-benefits that build resilience. In 2022, our Resilience Intel reports provided important insights on non-market climate cooperation, food security, early warning systems, and climate-resilient development.

We highlight some of the more impactful Resilience Intel briefs of 2022 here:

So Happy New Year to you all and let’s make 2023 a year to remember for all the best reasons!

Citizens’ Climate International statement on the Global Biodiversity Framework agreed at COP15

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Global Biodiversity Framework sets new standard for stewardship of nature

United Nations Biodiversity Framework, agreed by 190 nations in Montreal, establishes global ambition to protect 30% of land and water by 2030, halt mass extinction, and safeguard critical ecosystems.

Citizens’ Climate International welcomes the “pact with nature” agreed in Montreal in the early hours of Monday, Dec 19. The Kunming-Montreal Agreement brings 190 nations into a Global Biodiversity Framework to protect 30% of the world’s lands, coastal areas, inland waters, and oceans, by 2030.

We also want to express our appreciation for the hard work of so many scientists, advocates, and negotiators. Many have worked tirelessly for years—or decades—to secure this global agreement on the restoration and conservation of nature.

The Global Biodiversity Framework is built around four core goals:

  • GOAL A: Restore and conserve nature, ecosystems, and biodiversity, while halting mass extinction.
  • GOAL B: Sustainably use and manage biodiversity and nature, for the benefit of present and future generations.
  • GOAL C: Fairly and equitably share benefits, including monetary and non-monetary, genetic and digital sequence information, and traditional knowledge.
  • GOAL D: Provide adequate means of implementation—financial, capacity-building, technical and scientific, and access to technology.

Action toward this new commitment to protect 30% of land and water, to protect biodiversity, will have far-reaching positive effects—for nature and for people.

 


  • Species loss is happening faster than at any time since our species came into existence; mass extinction can be slowed, or even stopped, if the right actions are taken to stop polluting, stop destroying habitat, and stop disrupting the climate and other natural systems.
  • Loss of biodiversity is one of the converging forces putting global food security at risk. The world has agreed to cut global food waste in half and significantly reduce overconsumption and waste generation; this will allow us to reduce hunger and hardship while reducing the destruction of ecosystems to expand agriculture.

The Framework agreed in Montreal is also historic in its recognition of the need for inclusion, participation, and the active, ongoing defense of human rights.

  • Target 22 calls for “full, equitable, inclusive, effective and gender-responsive representation and participation in decision-making, and access to justice and information related to biodiversity by indigenous peoples and local communities, respecting their cultures and their rights over lands, territories, resources, and traditional knowledge, as well as by women and girls, children and youth, and persons with disabilities and ensure the full protection of environmental human rights defenders.”
  • Target 23 calls for “gender equality in the implementation of the framework through a gender-responsive approach where all women and girls have equal opportunity and capacity to contribute to the three objectives of the Convention, including by recognizing their equal rights and access to land and natural resources and their full, equitable, meaningful and informed participation and leadership at all levels of action, engagement, policy and decision-making related to biodiversity.”

These breakthroughs for inclusion, for the rights of women and girls, and indigenous peoples, and for the protection of environmental human rights defenders, will create a policy environment more favorable to justice and sustainability.

The agreed Framework also calls for:

  • Reducing to near zero the degradation of high-sensitivity, high-value, and high-integrity ecosystems;
  • Reducing by at least half the polluting runoff from agriculture, including fertilizers, pesticides, and other chemicals;
  • Progressively phasing out or reforming by 2030 subsidies that harm biodiversity by at least $500 billion per year, while scaling up positive incentives for biodiversity’s conservation and sustainable use;
  • Raising biodiversity-related international financial flows from developed to developing countries to $20 billion by 2025 and $30 billion by 2030;
  • Reducing incidence of disruptive invasive species by half and preventing establishment of invasive species in sensitive and vulnerable ecosystems.

Though it has not yet formally ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity, the United States sent a delegation to Montreal, participated in the negotiations, and committed to support implementation of the Framework. This is one among a growing number of signs that nations, industries, and financial institutions understand that leading on nature protection is inherent to mainstream legitimacy in the 21st century.

The Agreement calls for $200 billion per year by 2030 to restore and protect nature.

  • This will be reinforced by the global agreement to require large and transnational companies and financial institutions to track and report biodiversity risks and impacts throughout their supply chains and portfolios.
  • New financial practices and related business model innovations will make sustainable solutions an everyday reality for billions of people currently priced out of the sustainable economy.

In Montreal, CCI and our global community of volunteers were represented by Cathy Orlando—CCI Program Director, long-time Canada Manager, and a Women7 Advisor—and Gloria Bulus—the volunteer leader of CCI Kaduna, in Nigeria.

  • Their presence was critical for connecting with stakeholder networks and keeping human rights and high ambition centered in the process. 
  • CCI will be keeping a close eye on efforts to expand benefits to youth, women, vulnerable communities, and indigenous peoples, as part of the wider justice work linked to the Global Biodiversity Framework.
  • Other team members remotely joined workshops to map out climate and biodiversity work over the coming year. 

The committed restoration and conservation of nature is crucial for reducing vulnerability and instability and securing a livable future for people everywhere and for countless generations to come.

Additional resources

Reasons to be cheerful as we get to the end of 2022 – finally!

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National Carbon pricing policies may harm the industries of the countries which impose them if manufacturers decide to relocate to avoid payment, so there is no actual global reduction of emissions. For this reason the principle of Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanisms (CBAM), was developed, whereby importers of products or fuels pay the difference between the carbon price paid in the country of production and the carbon price of the importing country. This therefore incentivises decarbonisation measures and carbon pricing in the producing country and protects the importer from unfair competition.

 

After several years of planning and negotiation the EU has agreed on a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism policy to eventually replace the free allowances on carbon payments (ETS) given to its exporters, which may have impeded faster decarbonisation of industries. Although the EU (like the UK) has an Emissions Trading Scheme which covers about 40% of emissions,  CBAM can also be applied to a Climate Income policy such as Canada’s and Canada is looking closely at the idea.

 

Press Release from the European Parliament:

On Tuesday morning, MEPs reached a provisional agreement with Council to set up an EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism to combat climate change and prevent carbon leakage.

According to the deal reached, an EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will be set up to equalise the price of carbon paid for EU products operating under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) and the one for imported goods. This will be achieved by obliging companies that import into the EU to purchase so-called CBAM certificates to pay the difference between the carbon price paid in the country of production and the price of carbon allowances in the EU ETS.

The law will incentivise non-EU countries to increase their climate ambition and ensure that EU and global climate efforts are not undermined by production being relocated from the EU to countries with less ambitious policies.

The new bill will be the first of its kind. It is designed to be in full compliance with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. It will apply from 1 October 2023 but with a transition period where the obligations of the importer shall be limited to reporting. To avoid double protection of EU industries, the length of the transition period and the full phase in of the CBAM will be linked to the phasing out of the free allowances under the ETS. This will be negotiated later this week in connection with the revision of the ETS and the results integrated into the CBAM regulation.

The scope of CBAM

CBAM will cover iron and steel, cement, aluminium, fertilisers and electricity, as proposed by the Commission, and extended to hydrogen, indirect emissions under certain conditions, certain precursors as well as to some downstream products such as screws and bolts and similar articles of iron or steel.

Before the end of the transition periodthe Commission shall assess whether to extend the scope to other goods at risk of carbon leakage, including organic chemicals and polymers, with the goal to include all goods covered by the ETS by 2030. They shall also assess the methodology for indirect emissions and the possibility to include more downstream products.

The governance of CBAM will be now more centralised, with the Commission in charge of most of the tasks. By the end of 2027, the Commission will do a complete review of CBAM including an assessment of progress made in international negotiations on climate change, as well as the impact on imports from developing countries, in particular the least developed countries (LDCs).

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After the deal, rapporteur Mohammed Chahim (S&D, NL), said: “CBAM will be a crucial pillar of European climate policies. It is one of the only mechanisms we have to incentivise our trading partners to decarbonise their manufacturing industry. On top of this, it is an alternative to our current carbon leakage measures, which will allow us to apply the polluter pays principle to our own industry. A win-win situation.”

Next steps

This partial deal is dependent on an agreement on the reform of the EU Emissions Trading System. Parliament and Council will have to formally approve the agreement before the new law can come into force. The new law will come into force 20 days after its publication in the EU Official Journal.

Background

CBAM is part of the “Fit for 55 in 2030 package”, which is the EU’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels in line with the European Climate Law.

Finally, in case you missed the blog in ‘Views’, here is the hopeful message from Citizens Climate InternationaI about COP27 to end the year on a high note, along with the good news from the COP15 Biodiversity summit of course!

The outcome of COP 27 in Sharm El Sheikh treated the consequences – loss & damage, but not the cause – fossil fuels.  It was a huge victory to get loss and damage funding. This is to be celebrated.

We cannot rest yet. There is no mention of oil and gas in the COP 27 outcome. The math is simple: more fossil fuels burned means more adaptation and loss and damage costs. This victory is unbalanced.  Anything that is unbalanced is doomed.

We have hope because it’s not the COP sessions that change the world, it’s the actual work that goes on after governments have made those promises.  We have hope because we have been working behind the scenes and monitoring progress at the G7, G20, the United Nations, the World Bank and the IMF for several years now. We have hope because our volunteers are doing fantastic work around the world. We have hope because we know that the tracks have been laid for a resilient and equitable future and the train is about to leave the station. Consequently, we have hope because we know that the transformation of the economy will not be linear.

Change is coming. Find out how you can help and spread hope.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!