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30 March 2023 - NPWJ News Digest on Environmental Justice & Human Rights
Articles
We need decisive climate action, can COP28 deliver?
Al Jazeera, 29 Mar 2023
On March 20, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its synthesis report, a summary of seven years of climate science, that once again emphasised the grave threat humanity faces from climate change. The report concludes that even with the most ambitious greenhouse gas emission reductions, global warming is expected to overshoot the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit set by the Paris Agreement as early as 2030. Temperature increases are expected to reach 1.6C, before falling back below the critical threshold. For this “best case” scenario to take place global emissions must peak by 2025, drop by at least 43 percent by 2030, and reach net zero carbon by the middle of the century.
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Rising Antarctic ice melt will dramatically slow global ocean flows, study finds
Reuters, 29 Mar 2023
Rapidly melting Antarctic ice is dramatically slowing down the flow of water through the world's oceans, and could have a disastrous impact on global climate, the marine food chain and even the stability of ice shelves, new research has found. The "overturning circulation" of the oceans, driven by the movement of denser water towards the sea floor, helps deliver heat, carbon, oxygen and vital nutrients around the globe. But deep ocean water flows from the Antarctic could decline by 40% by 2050, according to a study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature. "That's stunning to see that happen so quickly," said Alan Mix, a paleoclimatologist at Oregon State University and co-author on the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessments, who was not involved in the study. "It appears to be kicking into gear right now. That's headline news."
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Swiss court case ties human rights to climate change
BBC News, 29 Mar 2023
More than 2,000 women are taking the Swiss government to court claiming its policy on climate change is violating their right to life and health. The case is the first time the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) will hear a case on the impact of climate change on human rights. It follows six years of unsuccessful battles through the Swiss courts. Temperatures in Switzerland are rising faster than the global average and there are ever more frequent heatwaves. The Swiss women - who call themselves the Club of Climate Seniors and have an average age of 73 - say climate change is putting their human rights, their health and even their lives at risk. Their evidence to the court includes their medical records. They want the ECHR to order Switzerland to work harder at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
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The Biden administration sells oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico
NPR, 29 Mar 2023
Fossil fuel energy companies looking to extract oil and natural gas from U.S. waters in the Gulf of Mexico got a boost on Wednesday, as they secured access to 1.6 million acres of waters offered at auction. That was just a fraction of some 73.3 million acres of federal waters the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) opened up for bidding. Officials spent more than an hour reading aloud the bids in Lease Sale 259, with some 13,600 blocks of "outer continental shelf" acreage in the Gulf of Mexico at stake. It's the second time this month that the Biden administration has opened federal territory for new oil drilling, after it approved the large and controversial Willow project in Alaska on March 13.
Climate change: England not ready for impact
BBC News, 29 Mar 2023
England is not ready for the unavoidable impacts of global warming, the government's advisers on climate change say in a new report. The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) said the government hasn't achieved any of its targets and needed a policy "step change" to avoid loss of life. The CCC reviews the government's adaptation plans - preparations to cope with the effects of global warming. The government said it would take the recommendations into account. The committee, also known as the CCC, is an independent group of experts set up to provide the government with advice on the climate crisis. Baroness Brown, chairwoman of the CCC's sub-committee on adaptation, said that the government wasn't taking the issue seriously enough.
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UN votes to ask world court to rule on countries’ climate duties
Al Jazeera, 29 Mar 2023
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a landmark resolution asking the world’s top court to define the obligations of countries to combat climate change. Advisory opinions of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) “have tremendous importance and can have a long-standing impact on the international legal order,” UN chief Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday as the resolution passed with a consensus vote. “If and when given, such an opinion would assist the General Assembly, the United Nations and member states to take the bolder and stronger climate action that our world so desperately needs,” Guterres added. An advisory opinion would not be binding on any jurisdiction, but could influence future negotiations.
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Berlin Voters Balk at Fast-Tracking Climate Neutrality by 2030
Bloomberg, 26 Mar 2023
Berlin voters balked at a plan to make the German capital climate-neutral by law by 2030, which would have put it 15 years ahead of Germany’s national target. The referendum, which would have obligated the city-state’s government to enshrine the climate goal in law, failed after fewer than the required 607,000 voters voted in favor, according to the state election commissioner’s tally. About 2.4 million people were eligible. The result leaves in place a non-binding goal of climate neutrality by 2045, which is in line with the rest of Germany. Referendum organizers, a nonprofit initiative called Klimaneustart Berlin, argued that Berlin’s governing body is “acting far too hesitantly.”
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