 | |||||||||
Follow us on:
| |||||||||
| ||||
Keep the rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees or less
The overwhelming scientific consensus is that global warming must be capped at 2 degrees C or preferably substantially less. Otherwise hundreds of millions across the globe will lose their lives and livelihoods, up to a third of land-based species may become extinct, immense political instability will occur as people migrate to avoid droughts and floods and compete for scarce resources, and great economic damage will be caused by increasingly extreme weather. There is also the grave danger of insecurity and conflict from the continued expansion of fossil fuel use. Only a set of binding targets, within a global framework, will deliver the necessary reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions. If the 2 degrees C ceiling is not to be breached then global emissions must peak by 2015 and then irreversibly decline. This will require the industrialised countries, who still contribute disproportionately to global emissions and who historically have been responsible for the bulk of the emissions now changing the climate, to adopt and meet exacting emissions reduction targets. The rest of the world must also be brought within a framework of binding targets, but the latter must occur via a process that allows them to meet their developmental needs. The coalition recognises that a number of frameworks for the equitable distribution of emissions between countries have been proposed, some of which are endorsed by members of the coalition. Stop Climate Chaos believes that whatever the framework instituted it should reflect certain basic principles of social, environmental and economic justice. Everyone has the right to live free from poverty. Everyone has a right to a fair share, and no more than a fair share, of the Earth's resources. |
| |||
|
Stop Climate Chaos | www.stopclimatechaos.ie | info@stopclimatechaos.ie
| ||||
We are calling on the Irish government to take the lead, and push for an international agreement to keep the rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees C or less.
