CLIMATE CHANGE

TIME TO ACT

"You cannot avoid the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today."

By Bianca Jagger, from the Foreword of A Renewable World

There is no doubt that today we stand at a crossroads in history. The warnings from our most respected scientists are loud and clear: we have less than a decade left to address climate change before reaching a point of no return. We have already reached the stage of dangerous climate change. Now the task is to prevent catastrophic climate chaos. And yet, government leaders continue to ignore the scale of the threat.

The reality is that failure to act will be far more costly and damaging to the world economy over the long term than if we act immediately. The costs of acting soon are manageable, especially when compared with the projected loss of human life, natural disasters and economic collapse in the coming decades. With the current financial meltdown and global economic recession, we failed to heed the signs before it was too late and we have been forced to deal with the consequences and to bear the burden of bailouts. We are making the same mistake with our environment, but when this system breaks, it may not be possible to fix it at all.

The Earth's atmosphere today has a concentration of nearly 390 carbon dioxide molecules per million. This number is rising by around two parts per million every year. Professor Jim Hansen at NASA is unequivocal that official targets of 450 parts per million of carbon dioxide should be slashed to 350 parts per million. He argues that cuts of atmospheric carbon concentrations, rather than just emissions reductions are now needed "if humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilisation developed."

Climate change is no longer just an environmental issue: it touches every part of our lives: security, human rights, poverty, hunger, health, economics and mass migration. Developing countries suffer most from the impacts of climate change, even though they have barely contributed to the problem. The time has come to raise awareness of the issues of climate justice. Justice is the litmus test for any measure designed to combat climate change. This includes justice between countries, within countries and between generations and justice for Mother Nature. Climate justice means rich countries providing poorer countries with access to modern clean technologies to help them raise their living standards by enabling them to embark on a renewable energy revolution.

Given the scale of the impending climate disaster, we need to rapidly replace our carbon-driven economy with a carbon-absorbing economy: a renewable energy economy, switching to a secure, low-carbon system that does not undermine economc and social development and that addresses the risks of energy insecurity and global inequality.  Renewable energy creates a plethora or new oppotunities - economic, environmental and social.

We must also embark upon a global programme of forest protection, reforestation and soil restoration. Deforestation currently contributes nearly 20% of overall annual carbon emissions. It is now widely recognised that curbing deforestion is a highly cost-effective way of reducing greenhosue gas emissions. Planting large areas of land with new forests and enriching soils with organic matter will further help to stabilise the concenration carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere at 350 parts per million.

At this critical juncture in history it is well to remember the words of President Abraham Lincoln: "You cannot avoid the responsibility of tomrrow by evading it today." The time has come for us to embrace this opportunity. There is no time for further excuses, postponement or procrastination. This is a time for courage and leadership and for positive and immediate action.

Extracted from the Foreword to 'A Renewable World' by Professor Herbert Girardet, APE Trustee