The IPCC said yesterday that nobody is taking action at the speed we need to avoid wars, starvation, and billions of refugees which will be the inevitable result of a broken climate with multiple extreme weather events.
Supporters of Just Stop Oil have disrupted oil supplies from critical oil facilities for the fifth day in a row in support of its demands that the UK government end new oil and gas projects in the UK.
A group of approximately 20 people sat down in the road with banners at the gate to the Kingsbury Oil terminal in Warwickshire, causing tankers to be turned away.
More than 200 people have been arrested since Friday as protests at oil terminals enter the fifth day. Those remaining are either glued or locked on.
War
Today’s actions follow the launch of the third part of the IPCC’s landmark Sixth Assessment Report yesterday during which UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutterres said:
“Climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals. But the truly dangerous radicals are the countries that are increasing the production of fossil fuels.”
Thalia Carr, 60 from Oxfordshire who is on the road at Kingbury this morning said: "The IPCC said yesterday that nobody is taking action.
"We need to avoid wars, starvation, and billions of refugees which will be the inevitable result of a broken climate with multiple extreme weather events... and yet, no one is doing anything on the scale and at the speed we need."
Yesterday's IPCC working group report warned that coal must be effectively phased out if the world is to stay within 1.5C. Yet the government's plans for new fossil fuel infrastructure would push temperatures over 1.5C.
Yet at least 40 new fossil fuel projects are in the UK’s pipeline, a report revealed days before the country hosted COP26.
Irreversible
The IPCC report also mentioned that methane emissions must be reduced by a third. And whilst preserving soils and planting trees is a step in the right direction, it won't be enough to mitigate the effects of climate change.
In the first section published last August, the report warned that human changes to climate change would be irreversible - a 'business as usual approach to climate breakdown could create catastrophic impacts.
Claudia Penna Rojas, 24, a student, from Latin America said:
“The UN Secretary-General said yesterday that the world was on a fast track to climate disaster, so why then is the UK government planning to license over 40 new oil fields?
"The reality is that everything good, all that we love, the lives of our children…are all at stake. The need for large-scale, radical civil resistance has never been more urgent. This is the fight for our lives and we all need to be a part of it. It’s the only chance we’ve got.”
The IPCC said yesterday that nobody is taking action at the speed we need to avoid wars, starvation, and billions of refugees which will be the inevitable result of a broken climate with multiple extreme weather events.
Discontent
The UK pledged to prevent global warming from spiraling out of control by signing the 2015 Paris Agreement. And it's legally bound by its own law to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
In order for this to be possible - fossil fuels will need to be phased out, and a 75% reliance of our electricity on clean energy by 2030 is necessary.
The prime minister, who is to announce his energy strategy later in the week, is pushing for the construction of eight new nuclear power stations across the UK - which could cost taxpayers around £13bn. He will also be exploiting more North Sea oil and gas.
Yet the price of renewable energy is rapidly falling, and solar costs have dropped globally by 90% since 2009. Wind and solar are now the cheapest sources of new electricity.
Action
According to Friends of the Earth, the cost of new offshore wind farms is expected to be lower than onshore wind by the mid-2030s.
Miranda Whelehan, 21 a student from Brighton said: “The government and the media sell us a lie that it is impossible to stop oil. We are told there is not enough money for renewables, whilst they drip more than one million pounds an hour into the overflowing pockets of UK oil companies."
Fossil fuels, including coal, oil, and natural gas - and currently supply about 80 percent of the world's energy despite renewable alternatives providing cheaper and cleaner alternatives.
The Just Stop Oil Coalition is calling on all of those whose futures are being destroyed, who are facing poverty, and who are outraged at the prospect of continuing our dependence on fossil fuels to step up and take action.
This Author
Yasmin Dahnoun is a member of the The Ecologist editorial team. She likes to take a solution-based approach to climate breakdown and is interested in sustainable farming, land rights, and growing change from the roots up. She tweets as @dahnoun_
