Climate Action Now

Dear Supporters,

Thank you again for all you do to support the planet. Please consider whether you can contribute once more this year-end season, as the planet is needing all the help it can get!

We received some tremendously generous donations through this Global Giving Climate Action Now website since our last report, funding a total of another 58,682 trees.  This means the total trees bought by IAHV and its partners on this project is now 201,173, creating over 2000 days of paid work for people in extreme poverty, with about half of that total funded through this website.  Amazing. 

The climate news remains challenging, however. On 26 November 2019, the UN Environment Program published its 2019 Emissions Gap Report. A link to a short video launching the report appears below, and the header above is a graph showing which countries emit the most greenhouse gases. G20 nations collectively account for 78 per cent of all emissions, but only five G20 members have committed to a long-term zero emissions target.

Key points from the Emissions Gap Report:

• The report presents the latest data on the expected gap in 2030 for the 1.5°C and 2°C temperature targets of the Paris Agreement, prepared by an international team of leading scientists
• The summary findings are bleak: Countries collectively failed to stop the growth in global GHG emissions, meaning that deeper and faster cuts are now required
• Fossil CO2 emissions from energy use and industry, which dominate total GHG emissions, grew 2.0 per cent in 2018
• There is no sign of GHG emissions peaking in the next few years; every year of postponed peaking means that deeper and faster cuts will be required. By 2030, emissions would need to be 25 per cent and 55 per cent lower than in 2018 to put the world on the least-cost pathway to limiting global warming to below 2C and 1.5°C respectively
• As G20 members account for around 78 per cent of global GHG emissions (including land use), they largely determine global emission trends and the extent to which the 2030 emissions gap will be closed

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that going beyond 1.5°C will increase the frequency and intensity of climate impacts:

• “Our collective failure to act early and hard on climate change means we now must deliver deep cuts to emissions – over 7 per cent each year, if we break it down evenly over the next decade,” said Inger Andersen, UNEP’s Executive Director. “This shows that countries simply cannot wait until the end of 2020, when new climate commitments are due, to step up action. They – and every city, region, business and individual – need to act now.”
• “We need quick wins to reduce emissions as much as possible in 2020, then stronger Nationally Determined Contributions to kick-start the major transformations of economies and societies. We need to catch up on the years in which we procrastinated,” she added. “If we don’t do this, the 1.5°C goal will be out of reach before 2030.”

Tree planting and education of the upcoming generation on the climate crisis are critically important at this stage. Please continue to support our efforts.

With gratitude,

The Climate Action Now Team

Links:

• On the Brink - Emissions Gap Report 2019 launch -- Nov 26, 2019
• Emissions Gap Report 2019