Focus on Arts and Ecology

After years of delay, the fossil fuel emissions driving climate change now need to be slashed extremely rapidly and across every part of global economies, top climate scientists warned this week.

But that dizzying transformation must also happen in a way that's fair and takes into account other priorities, such as development, or it may fail, they emphasised in the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

"If you do (it) at the expense of justice, of poverty eradication and the inclusion of people, then you're back at the starting block," noted Ghana-based Fatima Denton, one of the report's authors.

The good news is the technology to make a clean energy transition is largely in place and getting ever cheaper - and can bring huge benefits, from lower energy bills to cleaner air and more liveable cities.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the dash away from Russian gas as a result of the Ukraine war have also shown how swiftly energy policies can be adjusted and funding found to deal with crises.

"Sometimes it's just about political will," said Denton, who directs the U.N. University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.

As emissions continue to rise - despite all the promises to slash them - we will also need to suck significant amounts of carbon dioxide already emitted back out of the atmosphere to keep people and nature safe, the scientists warned, calling such a move "unavoidable".

Forests do that work naturally - so protecting and expanding those fast-disappearing natural ecosystems could do part of the job, while protecting biodiversity at the same time.

But there's plenty of controversy over other methods.

Those include creating huge new plantations of carbon-absorbing trees, grasses or other biomass that could be regularly harvested and burned for energy, with the released emissions captured and injected into underground storage - a technique known as BECCS.

Critics fear BECCS would need huge amounts of land, uprooting people or reducing cropland, threatening food security.

Somewhat less controversial - but extremely expensive - are efforts to install machines that work essentially as artificial trees, sucking carbon from the air and putting it into storage or products - though critics fear they could provide an excuse for continued fossil fuel use.

The IPCC report makes one thing absolutely clear: Real, deep cuts in fossil fuel emissions need to happen today. Pledges are no longer enough and other global problems, from war to pandemics, cannot be used to justify delayed action.

"Some government and business leaders are saying one thing, but doing another. Simply put, they are lying, and the results will be catastrophic," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Monday in stark remarks.

"Climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals. But the truly dangerous radicals are the countries that are increasing the production of fossil fuels," he added, calling that "moral and economic madness".

See you next week!

Laurie

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