COP26

The IPCC considers degrowth to be key to mitigating climate change Juan Bordera / Fernando Prieto 08/07/2021 https://ctxt.es/es/20210801/Politica/36900/IPCC-cambio-climatico-colapso-medioambiental-decrecimiento.htm 

In Spanish. Google translated version https://1drv.ms/u/s!AiXYIRE1zsiakUj5Yo8Kcds-Dlt_?e=16dGHm 

Another part of the Sixth Report of IPCC most important report on the planet leaks.

- "It would be necessary for CO2 emissions to peak before 2025 and to reach net zero between 2050 and 2075". 

- "No new coal or gas plants should be built, and the current ones should phased out to around 10 years. 

-Net zero emissions requires a certain degree of carbon capture and sequestration and carbon removal (CDR-CCS-BECCS). But these technologies that are far from developed. The precautionary Principle should be followed while adopting these technologies. 

- “The technological change implemented so far at a global level is not enough to achieve the climate or development objectives. Since 2010 the cost of renewable technologies has fallen, but in total, solar and wind account for 7% of the electricity supply. " Expected advances in other technologies such as carbon capture and sequestration, nuclear power and CDR (carbon dioxide removal) have been much less hopeful.

- “The growth in the consumption of energy and materials is the main cause of the increase in Greenhouse Gases (GHG). The slight decoupling of growth from energy use [and largely motivated by the relocation of production] has not been able to offset the effect of economic and population growth ”. This shows that technological developments that allow efficiency improvements and the shift towards low emission energy sources are not enough. Therefore, a very massive transition in the consumption of materials around the world, can even, temporarily, trigger emissions.

–It is hoped to be able to make a transition from the light combustion vehicle to the electric vehicle, while for heavy machinery it is recognized that there is still no appropriate technology (hence the questionable commitment to hydrogen), and more research should be done. The risk of running out of critical battery materials is explicitly mentioned, but it relies heavily on recycling materials.

– the current trajectory of Global warming is not only going to directly exceed those two degrees, but it will unleash even more the dreaded feedback mechanisms

- “It is not incompatible to fight against energy poverty and climate change. This is so because the big emitters are the richest: the richest 10% emit ten times more than the poorest 10%. That is why increasing the consumption of the poorest to basic subsistence levels would not increase emissions much ”.

–It also stands out the expansion of some emission-intensive economic activities, for example “aviation increasing by 28.5% from 2010 to 2020”. Despite this, at this point, the Spanish Government is happily giving millions for the expansions of the Barajas and El Prat airports. If the successive reports that the IPCC will make public in the coming months are followed, these projects should be seen as the absolute nonsense that they are, except for those who profit from them. Avoiding these extensions would be a good positive turning point, which could mean a change in dynamics.

– In scenarios that contemplate a reduction in energy demand, mitigation challenges are significantly reduced, with less dependence on CO2 removal (CDR), less pressure on land and lower prices. These scenarios do not imply a decrease in well-being, but rather a provision of better services. " This is literally a degrowth adaptation scenario.

 there is no single policy mechanism or governance system that alone can accelerate the necessary transition. It would take a combination of these that will be different in each context.

Examples of mechanisms would be the legislative ones, which can incentivize mitigation  or the creation of institutions and market mechanisms,  as long as social justice is taken into account. Other factors that can help would be the climate social movements  It also emphasizes that the measures to achieve reductions have to be changes in social behavior: less transport, relocation of work, a more vegetarian diet, etc.

 the essential radical change in an economic system whose perverse operation of accumulation and reproduction of capital in perpetuity has brought us to the current critical point is not clearly mentioned. 

IPCC steps up warning on climate tipping points in leaked draft  report  Fiona Harvey and agencies
 23 Jun 2021 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/23/climate-change-dangerous-thresholds-un-report 

The leaked draft warns of a series of thresholds beyond which recovery from climate breakdown may become impossible. It warns: “Life on Earth can recover from a drastic climate shift by evolving into new species and creating new ecosystems … humans cannot.”

Tipping points are triggered when temperatures reach a certain level, whereby one impact rapidly leads to a series of cascading events with vast repercussions.

“Scientists have identified several potential regional and global thresholds or tipping points in the climate beyond which impacts become unstoppable or irreversible, or accelerate. They could create huge social and economic responses, such as population displacements and conflict, and so represent the largest potential risks of climate change. Tipping points should be the climate change impacts about which policymakers worry the most, but they are often left out of assessments by scientists and economists because they are difficult to quantify.”

According to AFP, the IPCC draft details at least 12 potential tipping points. “The worst is yet to come, affecting our children’s and grandchildren’s lives much more than our own,” the report says.

Scientists increasingly concerned about thresholds beyond which recovery may become impossible 

COP26 Glasgow: Why equity is key to stopping climate change. Indepth presentation by Sunita Narain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol888qg-le8 Oct 31, 2021

Sunita Narain Director General, Centre for Science and Environment traces the inequities of emissions that has led to run away climate change. Issues such as cumulative historical emissions are slowly being phased out of the climate change discourse thereby removing the responsibility of a handful of countries like the US, the UK, the EU, Japan, Russia, Canada and Australia for creating the problem of global warming. Since 2001, China too has become part of the problem. Together the seven rich countries along with China will control over 70% of the carbon space left between 2020 and 2030.

Sunita Narain traces unjust share of carbon emissions that have helped a certain group of countries to develop while putting pressure on poor countries which are still developing to take unjust mitigation measures. Will net zero emissions targets by 2050 help the mitigate climate change? Sunita Narain says probably not, because that will mean emitting now and trying to offset it later.

Climate change to deliver debilitating blow to seven Karnataka districts:  https://www.deccanherald.com/state/top-karnataka-stories/climate-change-to-deliver-debilitating-blow-to-seven-karnataka-districts-study-1047482.html   NOV 05 2021.

The study, which is part of Karnataka government's draft climate action plan, said the extremities caused by climate change will effect change in vegetation in Vijayapura, Raichur, Koppal, Ballari, Chitradurga, Kodagu and Hassan under both low-emission and high-emission scenarios.

Indu K Murthy, Principal Research Scientist, Adaptation and Risk Analysis, at the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy: , "This means that the future climate at such locations will not be suitable for existing vegetation or forest type and biodiversity. The forest type change may be accompanied by forest dieback and mortality,” the study added.

Interventions were needed to prepare districts, especially farmers, by including crops that are resistant to climate change.

The study suggested that forest and agriculture policies need to change at the earliest with measures adopted to promote biodiversity at every level.

“Allowing the market to drive such policies will lead to monocropping and monoculture. Instead, the rules related to social and agroforestry as well as agriculture have to adopt measures that proactively promote biodiversity. This can also prepare the farmers to face the future,” she said.

study Experts have called for detailed studies to understand the various facets of the problem Chiranjeevi Kulkarni, DHNS, Bengaluru, NOV 05 2021, 01:08 ISTUPDATED:..

Read more at: