Gesellschaft | Politik, 09.11.2017

Global Climate Justice

Making the Climate Majors Pay for Climate Action

"The period of consequence requires honesty and courage. Nothing less will do." (Dr. James Hansen)

Die Klimakonferenz ist in vollem Gange. Nachfolgend finden Sie einen Auszug aus der Rede des amerikanischen Klimawissenschaftlers Dr. James Hansen bei der Bonner Klimakonferenz. Unter folgendem Link können Sie den vollständigen Beitrag: Global Climate Justice: Making the Climate Majors Pay for Climate Action nachlesen.

"Given that governments were instituted to serve the interests of the public, when climate change threatens the public it is appropriate that governments take actions to protect their citizens. Given that COP-23 is officially hosted by small island nations whose existence is threatened by climate change, it is appropriate to raise the issue of global climate justice and the fossil fuel industry.

I have come not to dwell on the growing climate crisis – though this crisis is now more profound than any we have ever faced. I have come not to dwell on the injustice of climate change – though the enormity of that injustice – to young people and future generations, to indigenous people, to fellow species – cannot be overstated.

I have come to note that greenhouse gas climate forcings are accelerating, not decelerating, and sea level rise and ocean acidification are accelerating. We confront a mortal threat, now endangering, only at first, the very existence of island and low-lying nations in the Pacific and around the planet.

Accordingly, ambition must be increased and enforced. No nation should be allowed to exit. Moreover, the unrequited provisions of the SUVA Declaration, Article 19, must be revived.1 Effective action must be undertaken not only to keep temperature rise below 1.5° C but, in my view, to return it to below 1° C to preserve island nations and global shorelines.

The science is clear. CO2 is the principal control knob that controls global temperature. Global warming already drives increasing climate extremes. Tropical cyclones, typhoons and hurricanes left wakes of devastation in the Pacific between 2013 and 2016 and recently in the Caribbean – and there is worse to come, unless we act with resolve and without further delay."

James Hansen