March, 28 2022, 01:38pm EDT
![Indigenous Environmental Network](https://assets.rbl.ms/32012615/origin.jpg)
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Tamra Gilbertson (IEN): tamra@ienearth.org ; +1-865-443-1337
Cate Bonacini (CIEL): cbonacini@ciel.org; +1-202-742-5847Â
340+ Organizations Call on Governments and the IPCC to Foreground Rapid Phaseout of Fossil Fuels
WASHINGTON
As governments meet this week to review and approve a summary of the latest findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) regarding climate mitigation, hundreds of organizations from around the world sent an open letter demanding that they focus on rapidly ending fossil fuel production and use. The letter, signed by nearly 350 organizations, including Center for International Environmental Law, Food & Water Watch, Friends of the Earth International, Greenpeace, Heinrich Boll Foundation, and the Indigenous Environmental Network, calls on governments and IPCC Co-Chairs to ensure the IPCC's summary of the mitigation science foregrounds rapid fossil fuel phaseout in order to avoid dangerous temperature overshoot, and recognizes that reliance on large-scale Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), carbon markets and carbon offsets, and Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) threatens irreversible harm to people and nature.
The Working Group III Summary for Policymakers (SPM) regarding IPCC mitigation recommendations due out on 4 April 2022 will greatly influence how the consensus science is understood and in turn, how it is acted upon by policymakers, investors, and the public. The stakes could not be any higher, the science any clearer, or the imperative for immediate action any greater.
The IPCC's recent WGII report on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability leaves no doubt: Climate change is a human rights and environmental and social justice crisis, eroding health, well-being, the environment, and equity across the entire globe, in grossly unequal ways. Current levels of warming are already causing permanent loss and damage, especially for the populations most vulnerable to, and least responsible for, the climate crisis. Surpassing 1.5degC of warming--even temporarily--will unleash further irreparable harm taking the planet into a point of no return.
Read the open letter to Governments and the IPCC here: https://www.realsolutions-not-netzero.org/ipcc-wg-iii
QUOTES FROM ORGANIZATIONS
Nikki Reisch, Director of the Climate & Energy Program at the Center for International Environmental Law, said:
The IPCC's Summary for Policymakers should not conceal the stark scientific realities that the full report lays bare. The climate crisis is accelerating and fossil fuels are the overwhelming cause. Any report on mitigation that fails to emphasize that fact is denying the very science to which the IPCC is committed. To avoid the irreversible harm of overshooting 1.5degC, we must end dependence on fossil fuels and phase out their production and use as rapidly and equitably as possible. Governments have a responsibility to ensure this truth is front and center in the summary of the IPCC's findings on mitigation. They also must convey the danger of relying on technologies like large-scale carbon dioxide removal and carbon offset schemes that threaten to push warming beyond 1.5degC, triggering irreversible harm to people and nature.
Dipti Bhatnagar, Climate Justice and Energy International Programme Coordinator from Friends of the Earth International, said:
We do not consent to an overshoot of 1.5 degrees, and there is no justification for pursuing policies or pathways that allow for an overshoot. We used to chant "1.5, we might survive" - 1.5 was already a compromise for frontline communities suffering the worst climate impacts. The IPCC told us only last month that breaching this guard-rail, even temporarily, could push us over a series of tipping points, unleashing a cascade of irreversible feedback systems that would cause warming beyond our ability to control. It would be grossly negligent to ignore those warnings and pursue a mitigation plan that allows for an overshoot, as is now on the table with this new report.
Tom BK Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, said:
Indigenous Peoples have been targeted by technology and market-based scams like carbon capture, solar radiation management and carbon pricing systems because these scams represent another money-making frontier for the colonizers. Indigenous Peoples have been targeted, harassed, exploited, and expelled by carbon brokers, traders, project managers, US agencies like US AID, and the big Conservation NGOs - all for the rights to their forests and lands. This is nothing new for Indigenous Peoples. Proponents of these technologies and markets of destruction not only create a system that distracts from the important political work of phasing out fossil fuels, they target Indigenous communities that keep this planet on life support. It is a horrific expansion of a deeply flawed, unjust and unethical system. We call on the IPCC and world leaders to listen to Indigenous Peoples and Mother Earth to focus their future western research projects on keeping fossil fuels in the ground.
Jim Walsh, Policy Director, Food & Water Watch, saId:
We do not have time to delay a transition off fossil fuels, but unfortunately global emissions of greenhouse gasses from fossil fuels continue to rise, as global leaders and polluters promote misleading net zero claims as solutions to the climate crisis. These climate scams, including carbon trading schemes, carbon capture, and biofuels not only delay real climate action but are creating significant harms to disadvantaged communities from air and water pollution. The leaders of the IPCC must make sure the Summary for Policymakers clearly states what the science shows, further reliance on climate scams that delay a phaseout of fossil fuels will imperil our ability to avoid catastrophic climate tipping points and lock us into irreversible impacts of climate change, increasing global suffering and harms
Established in 1990 within the United States, IEN was formed by grassroots Indigenous peoples and individuals to address environmental and economic justice issues (EJ). IEN's activities include building the capacity of Indigenous communities and tribal governments to develop mechanisms to protect our sacred sites, land, water, air, natural resources, health of both our people and all living things, and to build economically sustainable communities.
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"The richest 1% of humanity continues to fill their pockets while the rest are left to scrap for crumbs."
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The richest sliver of the global population hauled in more than $40 trillion in new wealth over the past decade as countries around the world cut taxes for those at the very top, supercharging inequality that poses a dire threat to democracy and the planet.
An Oxfam analysis released Thursday ahead of a meeting of G20 finance ministers estimated that over the past 10 years, the global 1% has accumulated $42 trillion in new wealth. That's "nearly 34 times more than the entire bottom 50% of the world's population," the group observed.
"That is disgusting," Michael Taylor, founder of the Australian Independent Media Network, wrote in response to the new figures.
The analysis comes amid a growing push by current and former world leaders for rich countries to enact a global tax on billionaire wealth that would begin to reverse the damage done by decades of regressive policy. Oxfam found in a separate analysis released earlier this year that economic and political elites' global "war on fair taxation" has slashed taxes for the rich by 32% since 1980.
Oxfam said Thursday that global billionaires "have been paying a tax rate equivalent to less than 0.5% of their wealth."
"Inequality has reached obscene levels, and until now governments have failed to protect people and planet from its catastrophic effects," Max Lawson, Oxfam's head of inequality policy, said in a statement Thursday. "The richest 1% of humanity continues to fill their pockets while the rest are left to scrap for crumbs."
"Momentum to increase taxes on the super-rich is undeniable, and this week is the first real litmus test for G20 governments," Lawson added. "Do they have the political will to strike a global standard that puts the needs of the many before the greed of an elite few?"
A recent report by renowned economist Gabriel Zucman of the University of California, Berkeley outlined how nations could go about implementing a 2% minimum tax on the wealth of global billionaires—a policy change that he shows would raise up to $250 billion in annual revenue that could be used to support a range of priorities, from climate investments to education and healthcare programs.
"Thanks to recent progress in international tax cooperation, a common taxation standard for billionaires has become technically possible," said Zucman. "Implementing it is a question of political will."
The economist's report was commissioned by the government of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has championed a global billionaire tax in the face of resistance from powerful nations, including the United States—which has more billionaires than any other country. In 2018, U.S. billionaires paid a lower effective tax rate than working-class Americans.
But reporting indicates that the leaders of G20 nations—which are home to roughly 80% of the world's billionaires—are likely to rebuff Lula's push for billionaire wealth tax, opting instead to pursue what Bloombergdescribed as "research on taxation and inequality that could take years to deliver results."
Reuters similarly reported Wednesday that G20 finance ministers meeting in Brazil "are preparing a joint statement for Thursday in support of progressive taxation that will stop short of endorsing the hosts' proposal for a global 'billionaire tax.'"
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"The world's poorest people are paying the highest price of hunger," Eric Munoz, Oxfam's food policy expert, said in response to the FAO report. "We need deeper, structural policy and social change to address all of the drivers of hunger, including economic injustice, climate change, and conflict."
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Pointing to June reports by The New York Times, Haaretz, and The Guardian, the groups—including the Center for International Policy, CodePink, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), National Iranian American Council (NIAC), U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) Action, and Win Without War—wrote to President Joe Biden and the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and State.
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"Unfortunately, what has been reported thus far could just be the tip of the iceberg."
Although the Israeli ministry denied involvement in the campaign and Stoic didn't respond to requests for comment, the newspaper noted that "at its peak, it used hundreds of fake accounts that posed as real Americans on X, Facebook, and Instagram to post pro-Israel comments. The accounts focused on U.S. lawmakers, particularly ones who are Black and Democrats."
As The Guardian reported on June 24, "That effort is only one of many such campaigns coordinated by the ministry."
The newspaper detailed "a sprawling relaunch of a controversial Israeli government program initially known as Kela Shlomo, designed to carry out what Israel called 'mass consciousness activities' targeted largely at the U.S. and Europe."
"Concert, now known as Voices of Israel, previouslyworked with groups spearheading a campaign to pass so-called 'anti-BDS' state laws that penalize Americans for engaging in boycotts or other nonviolent protests of Israel," The Guardian explained, referring to the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.
"Its latest incarnation is part of a hardline and sometimes covert operation by the Israeli government to strike back at student protests, human rights organizations, and other voices of dissent," according to the newspaper. "Voices' latestactivities were conducted through nonprofits and other entities that often do not disclose donor information."
The coalition calling on Biden to launch an investigation wrote that "it is incumbent on our government to protect its citizens from efforts by foreign governments to inappropriately interfere in our democratic process by spreading disinformation, targeting U.S. elected officials, and seeking to intimidate members of U.S. civil society."
Highlighting previous action "to punish and deter such nefarious behavior" by Russian firms, the groups argued that "as an administration that has defined itself as defenders of American democracy against threats from both domestic and foreign state actors, the news of the Israeli government's attacks on our democracy must be addressed."
NIAC president Jamal Abdi said, "What this letter asks for is very simple: that President Biden and his administration treat reports of inappropriate Israeli influence operations with the same seriousness that it has allegations of Russian and Iranian influence campaigns."
"Unfortunately, what has been reported thus far could just be the tip of the iceberg," he continued. "The administration must work to defend our democracy fully, and ensure that no foreign state has a green light to inappropriately target American citizens or manipulate our democratic process."
The U.S. government has provided weapons and diplomatic support for Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed at least 39,145 Palestinians and injured another 90,257, according to local officials, and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
"The United States has failed to protect Palestinian communities, putting them at risk of harm to continue emboldening Israel," USCPR Action policy manager Mohammed Khader said Wednesday. "As the Israeli government and its foreign agents attempt to undermine our collective efforts on Palestinian rights, we strongly urge for the federal government to impose sanctions to hold Israeli officials and institutions accountable for violating the law."
In addition to the reported covert operations, there have been overt actions by Israel's leaders. As Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Wednesday endorsed former U.S. President Donald Trump for the November election, saying that he believes the Republican "will receive the backing to act against Iran," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was invited to address a joint session of Congress, despite protests from American lawmakers.
Trump, Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris—now the presumed Democratic nominee for the November election—are all set to separately meet with Netanyahu while he is visiting the United States.
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"The report shows that the world has been set back 15 years, with levels of undernourishment comparable to those in 2008-2009," according to the FAO. "An alarming number of people continue to face food insecurity and malnutrition as global hunger levels have plateaued for three consecutive years."
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FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu said in a statement that "transforming agrifood systems is more critical than ever as we face the urgency of achieving the SDGs within six short years. FAO remains committed to supporting countries in their efforts to eradicate hunger and ensure food security for all."
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Cindy McCain, executive director of the U.N.'s World Food Program (WFP), said Wednesday that "a future free from hunger is possible if we can rally the resources and the political will needed to invest in proven long-term solutions."
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