THE
CLUB OF ROME LAUNCHES THE FIRST CLIMATE EMERGENCY PLAN
Climate change is the most pressing global challenge,
constituting an existential threat to humanity. The Club of Rome – Climate Emergency Plan, launched on
December 4th at the European Parliament, sets out 10 priority actions for
all sectors and governments, and is an urgent wake up call.
The recent IPCC
report emphasises that climate-related risks are significantly
more dangerous to human life and to the systems that sustain us at 2oC
warming compared with 1.5oC. Yet global action is lagging, stymied
by political meandering. To avoid the worst outcomes, global carbon emissions
must be cut by half by 2030 and to zero by 2050 – an unprecedented task which
requires bold and compelling action. The Club of Rome – Climate
Emergency Plan proposes ten action points to achieve the goal set by
the historic Paris Agreement, aligned with science and economic pragmatism, to
limit temperature increase to 1.5oC.
To avoid further collapse of environmental, political and
socio-economic systems, urgent leadership is required now from
governments, industry and citizens. Climate change is no longer a future
threat. It is already affecting billions of people across the globe and every
economy. Annual losses for the US alone will reach hundreds of billions of
dollars by the end of the century, according to the new US Climate
Assessment and continued climate related impacts could create 140 millionclimate
migrants globally by 2050.
“The ravages of a
rapidly warming climate are happening every day and will only get worse
especially for the world’s most vulnerable”, says Sandrine
Dixson-Declève, Co-President of the Club of Rome.
“Transformational climate action is an opportunity for a societal renaissance
of the proportions never seen before. This is a global emergency plan for a
shared and just future. We have the technology and capital but most NDC’s and
industry efforts are not ambitious enough. The only option now is adopting an
emergency plan! Time is not going to be forgiving.”
“40 Years ago the first report to the Club of Rome, The Limits to Growth,
alerted the world to the environmental and demographic challenges ahead. Today,
we see that decades of exponential growth in both population and consumption
are now colliding with the limits of Earths biosphere. Emergency action is more
necessary than ever. We cannot turn a blind eye to the dual tipping points of
species extinction and climate change”, said Anders Wijkman, Honorary
President of the Club of Rome.
“As Members of the
European Parliament, we are proud to host the launch of the Club of Rome’s
Climate Emergency Plan and fully support the Club of Rome’s call for urgency.
All leaders worldwide have a moral obligation to show climate leadership and
secure this planet for future generations. As elected European leaders, we have
a special responsibility to strive for ambitious European and global net zero
goals by 2050,” said Heidi Hautala, MEP, VP European Parliament andJo
Leinen, MEP.
The Club of Rome
Climate Emergency Plan calls for 10 priority actions:
1. Halt fossil fuel expansion and fossil fuel subsidies by 2020: No new
investments in coal, oil and gas exploration and development after 2020 and a
phase-out of the existing fossil fuel industry by 2050. Phase-out of fossil
fuel subsidies by 2020.
2.Triple annual investments in renewable energy, energy
efficiency and low carbon technologies for high emitting sectors before 2025: Give priority to
developing countries to avoid lock-in to the carbon economy.
3. Put a price on carbon to reflect the true cost of fossil
fuel use and embedded carbon by 2020: Introduce carbon floor prices. Tax embedded carbon through
targeted consumption taxes. Direct tax revenues to research, development and
innovation for low-carbon solutions, cutting other taxes or supporting the
welfare state.
4. Replace GDP growth as the main objective for societal
progress and adopt new indicators that accurately measure welfare and
wellbeing rather than production growth.
5. Improve refrigerant management by 2020. Adopt ambitious
standards and policy to control leakages of refrigerants from existing
appliances through better management practices and recovery, recycling, and
destruction of refrigerants at the end of life.
6. Encourage exponential technology development by 2020: Create an
International Task Force to explore alignment of exponential technologies and
business models with the Paris Agreement to promote technology disruption in
sectors where carbon emissions have been difficult to eliminate.
7. Ensure greater materials efficiency and circularity by
2025: Significantly reduce the impact of basic materials e.g. steel, cement,
aluminum and plastics from almost 20% of global carbon emissions today by the
early introduction of innovation, materials substitution, energy efficiency,
renewable energy supply and circular material flows.
8. Accelerate regenerative land use policies and adaptation: Triple annual
investments in large-scale REDD+ reforestation and estuarine marshland
initiatives in developing countries. Compensate farmers for building carbon in
the soils and promote forestry sequestration. Support efforts to restore
degraded lands. Implement adaptive risk management procedures in every state, industry,
city or community.
9. Ensure that population growth is kept under control by giving
priority to education and health services for girls and women. Promote reproductive
health and rights, including family planning programmes.
10. Provide for a just
transition in all affected communities: Establish funding and re-training
programmes for displaced workers and communities. Provide assistance in the
diversification of higher carbon industries to lower carbon production. Call
upon the top 10% earners of the world to cut their GHG emissions by half till
2030.
Together with its national chapters and partners across the globe,
the Club of Rome will work with all stakeholders to translate thought
leadership into action in implementing the Emergency Plan and realizing a
positive vision of the future.
Further Quotes:
“Three decades of
wilful denial by political, corporate, media and bureaucratic leaders, in the
face of repeated warnings, has now made climate change an existential risk to
humanity, with the potential to annihilate intelligent life. The risk is
immediate, given that expanding fossil-fuel use is locking in these outcomes
today. Leaders must set aside conventional politics, instead co-operating
to address climate change as an unprecedented emergency. Preserving humanity
far outweighs the interests of any nation state or corporation”. Ian Dunlop, Member of
the Club of Rome, Australia.
“Climate change is a
real and present danger to the sustainability of mother earth. The continent of
Africa is the most vulnerable and least resourced part of our globe to
adequately deal with the consequences of climate change. The irony is that
Africa’s heritage of a civilisation based on Ubuntu – the law of nature that
each individual thrives in the long run only if the rest of the eco-system
thrives as well”.
Dr. Mamphela Ramphele, Co-President of the Club of Rome, South
Africa.
“Scientific evidence shows clearly that we are facing
existential risks. I would like to congratulate the Club of Rome for
persistently being a voice on science-based evidence for the need of a
transformation to a sustainable future for humanity”.
Dr. Johan Rockström, Executive Director at the Stockholm
Resilience Centre.
