Dear Fossil Fuel Industry - It's Over
It's been a long week here in Berlin, with experts and government officials finalising urgently awaited conclusions from the United Nations climate change panel about the solutions to climate change. Now they're done and the message is clear: climate action is an opportunity, not a burden!
It's been a long week here in Berlin, with experts and government officials finalising urgently awaited conclusions from the United Nations climate change panel about the solutions to climate change. Now they're done and the message is clear: climate action is an opportunity, not a burden!
The climate panel, which brings together the world's top energy and climate experts, says that to prevent catastrophic climate change, energy systems around the world must be urgently and fundamentally transformed. For Greenpeace, the bottom line is: we have to stop burning coal, oil and gas. And we can.
Clean, renewable energy is getting bigger, better and cheaper every day and can now provide the solutions the world needs. Renewables are the most economical solution for new power capacity in an ever increasing number of countries.
The "age of renewables" has arrived.
Clean energy is not costly, but inaction is. Costly in terms of lives, livelihoods and economies if governments and business continue to allow climate change impacts to escalate.
The problem now is the outdated dirty energy system. Old polluting power plants, for example. When we talk to people at major energy firms these days, they admit in private that they understand the need to move to clean energy. But the investments that companies such as Vattenfall or E.On have tied up in dirty energy plants, and that may soon be stranded (i.e. wasted) assets, is holding them back.
Now is the time to tell the fossil fuel industry that their time is up. The phase-out of fossil fuels must start immediately.
Greenpeace is committed to making this a just transition that respects also the rights of all workers in the dirty energy sector. We know from our Energy Revolution analyses over the past decade that renewables and energy efficiency will deliver more jobs than carrying on with dirty energy.
By implementing the Energy Revolution governments can, for example, help businesses create 3.2 million more jobs by 2030 in the global power supply sector alone. In South Africa, to pick just one country, 149,000 direct jobs could be created by 2030. That's 38,000 more than in the current government plan.
We have no time to lose. Global greenhouse gas emissions grew faster between 2000 and 2010 than in previous decades, says the UN climate panel. More than half of the recent growth in global carbon emissions was caused by China burning ever more coal.
Continuing that trend would spell global disaster. But a triple whammy of air pollution, water scarcity and climate risk is turning China around on coal. China's recently adopted clean air measures have the potential to not just let Chinese citizens breath cleaner air again, but to end the relentless rise of global climate pollution before 2020.
China's turnaround on coal could also change the dynamics in the global climate debate. The Chinese government could end the current "you go first" mentality that has poisoned progress through the UN climate talks. Instead of fighting over who gets to pump out the most carbon pollution, governments have to face reality and agree that by 2050 no one will be polluting our common atmosphere any longer.
True, countries differ in their capacity to invest in a zero-emissions future. Countries which, in the past, have emitted little should be supported by richer nations in eliminating their old, dirty system. But the days where climate action was thought of as something painful must be over.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if China, emboldened by its domestic actions, were to lead the world to a new global climate agreement by presenting an ambitious new target with binding emission cuts? Imagine how embarrassing that would be for the US and the EU! How could the EU then continue to claim that its proposed 40% cut in emission by 2030 was "ambitious"? Would the EU feel pushed to make a fairer offer, instead - such as cutting emissions within the EU by at least 55%?
A new global climate treaty is due to be adopted in Paris next year. It must include the goal of 100% renewable energy for all and the phase-out of fossil fuels. Only then can governments claim to have understood the true implications of the UN climate report they reviewed this week.
We are at a crossroads
This country and this world are at a monumental crossroads. US voters have an opportunity to beat back the forces of fascism and confront the billionaires who are rigging the economy, our media system, and our democracy, making it increasingly impossible for ordinary people to get by. We’re not just talking about the election. We’re talking about what must be done once these fascist elements are vanquished from power. We need a bolder set of solutions than what either major party has so far been willing to offer and a working-class movement ready to fight like hell for it. Trump didn't emerge from nowhere. The conditions that fueled MAGA authoritarianism were created by decades of radical neoliberal economic policies and a corrupt political system dominated by corporate interests. They slashed taxes on the super-rich, promising that the benefits would trickle down. They said giveaways to the corporate titans would make life more affordable for the rest of us. It was all bullshit. And when a bitter, betrayed populace searches for someone to blame, right-wing demagogues have little trouble finding scapegoats. People know when they're being lied to, but you won't hear any of this from the corporate media. Only independent journalism—powered and funded by people who believe in building a better world—can deliver truly trustworthy daily news. Our Fall Campaign is underway, and we need your help. To power our newsroom through the rest of the year, we need to raise $125,000 by midnight on October 31. So if you share our vision, please contribute whatever you can to sustain our work. |
It's been a long week here in Berlin, with experts and government officials finalising urgently awaited conclusions from the United Nations climate change panel about the solutions to climate change. Now they're done and the message is clear: climate action is an opportunity, not a burden!
The climate panel, which brings together the world's top energy and climate experts, says that to prevent catastrophic climate change, energy systems around the world must be urgently and fundamentally transformed. For Greenpeace, the bottom line is: we have to stop burning coal, oil and gas. And we can.
Clean, renewable energy is getting bigger, better and cheaper every day and can now provide the solutions the world needs. Renewables are the most economical solution for new power capacity in an ever increasing number of countries.
The "age of renewables" has arrived.
Clean energy is not costly, but inaction is. Costly in terms of lives, livelihoods and economies if governments and business continue to allow climate change impacts to escalate.
The problem now is the outdated dirty energy system. Old polluting power plants, for example. When we talk to people at major energy firms these days, they admit in private that they understand the need to move to clean energy. But the investments that companies such as Vattenfall or E.On have tied up in dirty energy plants, and that may soon be stranded (i.e. wasted) assets, is holding them back.
Now is the time to tell the fossil fuel industry that their time is up. The phase-out of fossil fuels must start immediately.
Greenpeace is committed to making this a just transition that respects also the rights of all workers in the dirty energy sector. We know from our Energy Revolution analyses over the past decade that renewables and energy efficiency will deliver more jobs than carrying on with dirty energy.
By implementing the Energy Revolution governments can, for example, help businesses create 3.2 million more jobs by 2030 in the global power supply sector alone. In South Africa, to pick just one country, 149,000 direct jobs could be created by 2030. That's 38,000 more than in the current government plan.
We have no time to lose. Global greenhouse gas emissions grew faster between 2000 and 2010 than in previous decades, says the UN climate panel. More than half of the recent growth in global carbon emissions was caused by China burning ever more coal.
Continuing that trend would spell global disaster. But a triple whammy of air pollution, water scarcity and climate risk is turning China around on coal. China's recently adopted clean air measures have the potential to not just let Chinese citizens breath cleaner air again, but to end the relentless rise of global climate pollution before 2020.
China's turnaround on coal could also change the dynamics in the global climate debate. The Chinese government could end the current "you go first" mentality that has poisoned progress through the UN climate talks. Instead of fighting over who gets to pump out the most carbon pollution, governments have to face reality and agree that by 2050 no one will be polluting our common atmosphere any longer.
True, countries differ in their capacity to invest in a zero-emissions future. Countries which, in the past, have emitted little should be supported by richer nations in eliminating their old, dirty system. But the days where climate action was thought of as something painful must be over.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if China, emboldened by its domestic actions, were to lead the world to a new global climate agreement by presenting an ambitious new target with binding emission cuts? Imagine how embarrassing that would be for the US and the EU! How could the EU then continue to claim that its proposed 40% cut in emission by 2030 was "ambitious"? Would the EU feel pushed to make a fairer offer, instead - such as cutting emissions within the EU by at least 55%?
A new global climate treaty is due to be adopted in Paris next year. It must include the goal of 100% renewable energy for all and the phase-out of fossil fuels. Only then can governments claim to have understood the true implications of the UN climate report they reviewed this week.
It's been a long week here in Berlin, with experts and government officials finalising urgently awaited conclusions from the United Nations climate change panel about the solutions to climate change. Now they're done and the message is clear: climate action is an opportunity, not a burden!
The climate panel, which brings together the world's top energy and climate experts, says that to prevent catastrophic climate change, energy systems around the world must be urgently and fundamentally transformed. For Greenpeace, the bottom line is: we have to stop burning coal, oil and gas. And we can.
Clean, renewable energy is getting bigger, better and cheaper every day and can now provide the solutions the world needs. Renewables are the most economical solution for new power capacity in an ever increasing number of countries.
The "age of renewables" has arrived.
Clean energy is not costly, but inaction is. Costly in terms of lives, livelihoods and economies if governments and business continue to allow climate change impacts to escalate.
The problem now is the outdated dirty energy system. Old polluting power plants, for example. When we talk to people at major energy firms these days, they admit in private that they understand the need to move to clean energy. But the investments that companies such as Vattenfall or E.On have tied up in dirty energy plants, and that may soon be stranded (i.e. wasted) assets, is holding them back.
Now is the time to tell the fossil fuel industry that their time is up. The phase-out of fossil fuels must start immediately.
Greenpeace is committed to making this a just transition that respects also the rights of all workers in the dirty energy sector. We know from our Energy Revolution analyses over the past decade that renewables and energy efficiency will deliver more jobs than carrying on with dirty energy.
By implementing the Energy Revolution governments can, for example, help businesses create 3.2 million more jobs by 2030 in the global power supply sector alone. In South Africa, to pick just one country, 149,000 direct jobs could be created by 2030. That's 38,000 more than in the current government plan.
We have no time to lose. Global greenhouse gas emissions grew faster between 2000 and 2010 than in previous decades, says the UN climate panel. More than half of the recent growth in global carbon emissions was caused by China burning ever more coal.
Continuing that trend would spell global disaster. But a triple whammy of air pollution, water scarcity and climate risk is turning China around on coal. China's recently adopted clean air measures have the potential to not just let Chinese citizens breath cleaner air again, but to end the relentless rise of global climate pollution before 2020.
China's turnaround on coal could also change the dynamics in the global climate debate. The Chinese government could end the current "you go first" mentality that has poisoned progress through the UN climate talks. Instead of fighting over who gets to pump out the most carbon pollution, governments have to face reality and agree that by 2050 no one will be polluting our common atmosphere any longer.
True, countries differ in their capacity to invest in a zero-emissions future. Countries which, in the past, have emitted little should be supported by richer nations in eliminating their old, dirty system. But the days where climate action was thought of as something painful must be over.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if China, emboldened by its domestic actions, were to lead the world to a new global climate agreement by presenting an ambitious new target with binding emission cuts? Imagine how embarrassing that would be for the US and the EU! How could the EU then continue to claim that its proposed 40% cut in emission by 2030 was "ambitious"? Would the EU feel pushed to make a fairer offer, instead - such as cutting emissions within the EU by at least 55%?
A new global climate treaty is due to be adopted in Paris next year. It must include the goal of 100% renewable energy for all and the phase-out of fossil fuels. Only then can governments claim to have understood the true implications of the UN climate report they reviewed this week.