Paris climate conference - failure is not an option

 Global Greens call for unity and resolve

The Global Greens call upon the governments of the world, assembled at Paris next week, to fulfil their collective responsibility for preventing dangerous climate change.

Unity and resolve are vital, not least as a counter to the fear and disunity that horrific terrorist attacks, like those recently in Mali, Paris and Beirut, aim to inspire. Failure is not an option.

We call on all the peoples of the world, marching this weekend, to demand this of their governments and hold them electorally to account.

Specifically, the Global Greens call on governments in Paris to negotiate a legally binding agreement that demonstrates

1.  Ambition. Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) fall well short of preventing dangerous climate change (if implemented they may hold global warming to 2.7℃ above pre-industrial levels). The Global Greens re-affirm our commitment to limit global warming to no more than 1.5℃ above pre-industrial levels and call for a rigorous transparent process to review and tighten INDCs every year at the UNFCCC annual conference of parties.

2.  Justice. The developed world must honour its pledge to mobilise $USD100 billion per annum climate finance from 2020. This is a precondition for the success of the Paris climate summit. Climate finance must be complemented with a ‘loss and damage’ mechanism to compensate and support the most vulnerable countries already being disastrously impacted by climate change.

3.  Clean energy commitment. The world’s energy supplies should be ‘decarbonised’ no later than 2050, replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources and energy efficiency, and providing clean affordable energy for all. Nuclear power is not an alternative because it is unsafe, expensive and a terrorism risk.

4.  Forest protection commitment. Climate finance must be available for the protection of  biodiverse natural forests and ecosystems which are a vital buffer against climate change. There must be full respect for the rights of local communities and Indigenous peoples in this process.

The climate crisis is both the greatest challenge facing the global community and the greatest opportunity for humanity to rethink how we live, in a way that is socially just and within the Earth’s ecological limits.

We look to the 21st meeting of parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to boost dramatically the momentum of global climate action and set the world on the path to a safe climate.

Global Greens Statement, November 2015