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Joint Statement: Don’t Fuel the Fire

Don’t fuel the fire!

We need real solutions and real emission reductions: Now, in 2040 and beyond.

 

We – over 140 organisations – call on the EU to be a true climate leader by supporting real climate action and denouncing dangerous distractions and false solutions like carbon capture and removal technologies. 

At COP28, the European Union (EU) supported calls for the world to phase out fossil fuels. But now it has been revealed that the EU’s own planned climate targets for 2040 might rely extensively on dangerous distractions, including carbon capture and storage and speculative carbon removal technologies that will delay the transition away from oil, gas, and coal. EU decision-makers must stop the hypocrisy of calling for a fossil fuel phase-out internationally, while promoting the contrary in their domestic policies.

To avoid the worst effects of climate chaos, we must immediately, equitably, and justly transform the way we produce our food, relate to the Earth’s ecosystems and power our economies. We must urgently deploy evidence-based, socially just and people-led solutions to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, down to Real Zero.

A target that includes not only emission reductions but significantly relies upon carbon capture and carbon and storage – which have a 50 year record of failure – and carbon removal activities hides the lack of ambition in committing to real action and deep emission cuts today. A ‘net’ target gives the false promise that ‘nature-based solutions’ and speculative technologies for ‘carbon dioxide removal’ will one day suck vast amounts of ongoing carbon pollution out of the atmosphere. But both, temporary carbon storage in soils and forest and technological approaches come with massive uncertainties, risks and limits. Some of those approaches could, if they were implemented at scale, even accelerate the climate and biodiversity crises and put rural communities and resilient food systems at risk. Ecosystem restoration is critical beyond its function as a carbon sink but cannot serve as a substitution for emission reductions.

The European Commission’s new plan for so-called ‘industrial carbon management’ is a smokescreen for continued use of fossil fuels. The plan claims to ‘manage’ the carbon emissions associated with fossil fuels through Carbon Capture Use and Storage (CCUS) technologies. These are the fossil fuel industry’s favourite escape hatch towards inaction and delay. Other promoted ‘carbon management’ technologies, such as Direct Air Capture with Carbon Capture and Storage (DACCS) and Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) are unproven, extremely costly and especially destructive if scaled. Attempts to widely scale-up these technologies risk delaying the needed emission reductions, including by diverting energy and resources.

Choosing a pathway that fails to cut emissions adequately in the near term while handing out new subsidies to the fossil fuel industry is an extremely dangerous gamble and an irresponsible and unjust choice. Including so-called biomass-based removals (such as BECCS and biochar) risks creating a new support mechanism for burning wood at an even larger scale, thereby causing more forest degradation and habitat loss, and harming the climate.

Staying below 1.5°C of warming requires real, just, and immediate reductions. Real climate solutions involve empowering communities and stopping – not accelerating – the scramble for land, power, and profit.

It is clear what Real Zero needs to look like: a just and equitably managed phase-out of fossil fuels; a real reduction of energy consumption for the ultra-rich and for industrialised countries; a transition to fair, democratic and sustainable renewable energy; support for small-scale farmers and for a fair transition from industrial food and agricultural systems towards agroecology and food sovereignty; close-to-nature forestry practices and a reduction of the excessive demand for wood and agricultural commodities; recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ and small farmers’ land rights; and the redirection of public subsidies away from fossil fuels and harmful industrial agriculture and forestry systems to support these measures.


Signed by:

1000 Grandmothers for Future Generations

11 maart beweging

Aalem for Orphan and Vulnerable Children, Inc.

AbibiNsroma Foundation

African CSO Biodiversity Alliance (ACBA)

Agora Association

Amigos de la Tierra España

AnsvarligFremtid

ARA

ARRCC (Australian Religious Response to Climate Change)

Asrori Farm

Association For Promotion Sustainable Development

Association pour la Conservation et la Protection des Écosystèmes des Lacs et l’Agriculture Durable

BI “Saubere Umwelt & Energie Altmark”

Biofuelwatch

Bomenbond

Break Free From Plastic

Broederlijk Delen

Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland e.V. (BUND)

BUND Landesverband Schleswig-Holstein

Canopea

Center for Biological Diversity

Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)

Centre pour la Justice Environnementale Togo

Citizens’ Institute for Environmental Studies

Civic Response

Clean Air Action Group

Clean Energy Action

Climate Action for Lifelong Learners (CALL)

Climate Action Network Southeast Asia (CANSEA)

Climate Express

Co-ordination Office of the Austrian Bishops’ Conference for International Development and Mission (KOO)

Coastal Plain Conservation Group

Colorado Democratic Party – Energy and Environment Initiative

Comite Schone Lucht

Corporate Europe Observatory

De Klimaatcoalitie

De Landgenoten

Debt Observatory in Globalisation (ODG)

denkhausbremen

Destination Zero

Deutsche Umwelthilfe

DISABILITY PEOPLES FORUM UGANDA

Earth Neighborhood Productions

Earth Thrive

EcoNexus

Ecor.Network

EDSP ECO

Egyptian Green Party

Empower Our Future

Environmental Defence Canada

Environmental Investigation Agency

Environmental Justice Foundation

Euro Coop

European Coordination of La Via Campesina (ECVC)

FDCL – Center for Research and Documentation Chile-Latin America

Federatie tegen Biomassacentrales

Feedback EU

Fern

FIAN Sri Lanka

Food & Water Action Europe

Fresh Eyes

Friends of the Earth Europe

Friends of the Earth International

Friends of the Earth Ireland

Gallifrey Foundation

Global Forest Coalition

Global Justice ecology project

Global Justice Now

Global Missions International

Green Element

Green Global Future

Green Liberty

Green Transition Denmark

Healthy Indoor Environment

Heartpolitics

Hope of Africa (HOFA CAMEROUN)

Human Nature

Indigenous Peoples Global Forum for Sustainable Development, IPGFforSD (International Indigenous Platform)

Ingleside on the Bay Coastal Watch Association

Innovation pour le Développement et la Protection de l’environnement

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Institute for Sustianability, Equity and Resilience,Coventry University

Jordens Vänner / Friends of the Earth Sweden

Klimakultur

KLJB Deutschlands e.V.

Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie

Landelijk Netwerk Bossen- en Bomenbescherming

Leefmilieu

Les Amis de la Terre -Togo

Linked.Farm

Living Oceans Society

Natural Justice

No Electricity From Forests

No Plastic In My Sea

NOAH – Friends of the Earth Denmark

Oil Change International

Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum

Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ)

Pivot Point

PowerShift Brandenburg e.V.

PowerShift e.V.

Pro REGENWALD

Publish What You Pay

Quantum Leap

Quercus Associação Nacional de Conservação da Natureza

Rapid Transition Alliance

Razom We Stand

Réaction en chaîne humaine

ReCommon

Recourse

Rete Legalità per il clima

Rettet den Regenwald

Rinascimento Green

Rise Up West Virginia (Rise Up WV)

Save Estonia’s Forests

Seas At Risk

SERI Sustainable Europe Research Institute

Shift: Action for Pension Wealth & Planet Health

SOMO

Stay Grounded Network

Sustainable Development Institute-FOE Liberia

Switch It Green

The Climate Reality Project Europe

The Victoria Secular Humanist Association

Third World Network

TRAFFED-DRC

United Kingdom Without Incineration Network

Urgewald e.V.

Voedsel Anders

Vote Climate

Water Justice and Gender

WECF – Women Engage for a Common Future

WhatNext?

Wild Heritage

WISE Netherlands

Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom UK

YASAVA

Zero Waste Europe

1 Feb, 2024
Posted in Petitions and statements, Gender Justice and Forests, Forests and Climate Change