(MENAFN- Daily Outlook Afghanistan) In a recent special report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) argues that addressing climate change will require fundamental changesto the way we manage forests and farmland. The data are new, but the underlyingconclusion isn't: for over a decade, scientists, environmentalists, andcivil-society organizations have been warning that our prevailing – and deeplyunjust – model of production and consumption lies at the root of the climatecrisis. Protecting the planet on which our survival depends will requirenothing short than system change
The world – and thedeveloped countries, in particular – has built an economic system focused oncapital accumulation, which privileges corporate profits over the wellbeing ofpeople and the environment, entrenching injustice and rewarding itsperpetrators. This process has been unfolding for centuries, but hasaccelerated in recent decades, as a select few have acquired an ever-largershare of total wealth and political influence. Today, just 100 corporationsproduce 71% of greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. The wealthiest 10% of people areresponsible for around 50% of GHG emissions, while the poorest 50% produce 10%of emissions.
Unwilling to stand upto those who are destroying our planet, political leaders have latched ontotechnological solutions, including geoengineering approaches that promise tosuck already-emitted carbon out of the atmosphere. Even the IPCC includedassumptions about such technologies in many of its modeled pathways for keepingglobal temperatures from rising more than 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.
But geoengineeringtechnologies are unproven, unsafe, and unrealistic. Consider bio-energy withcarbon capture and storage (BECCS), the leading proposed path to 'net-negativeemissions. BECCS entails growing certain crops as biomass, burning the plantmaterial for energy, capturing the CO2 emitted during combustion, and storingit underground.
That sounds promisinguntil one recognizes that growing biomass on the necessary scale would requirean estimated three billion hectares – twice the Earth's currently cultivatedland. Any attempt to implement BECCS would thus be impossible without massdeforestation and soil degradation in the tropical belt of the SouthernHemisphere, where most fast-growing biomass is produced. Land grabs arevirtually guaranteed. Moreover, as agricultural land was transformed to producebiomass, food prices could rise, fueling hunger and malnutrition. And thedestruction of vital ecosystems would eliminate the livelihoods of localcommunities and indigenous peoples.
Hyping BECCS and othermisleading promises – such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and ForestDegradation (REDD+) initiatives and carbon-trading schemes – is expedient forrich countries, corporations, and elites, because the technology charadeenables them to continue profiting from the climate crisis they have created.But, by distracting from real imperatives, it allows the crisis to deepen anddisproportionately affect those who have contributed the least.
It is time for thosewho caused the climate crisis to take responsibility for addressing it. To thisend, developed-country governments must take the lead in drastically cuttingemissions at source by pursuing a comprehensive transformation of their energy,transport, food and economic systems.
Essential stepsinclude ending investment in fossil fuels; transforming our energy systemstowards community and public renewable energy systems; abandoning destructivepractices like industrial agriculture and logging; community management ofbiodiversity and water resources; and reorganizing urban life to supportsustainability. Neoliberal trade and investment agreements that prioritize theinterests of business over environmental sustainability and human rights mustbe reversed to allow for these solutions.
At the same time,developed-country governments must provide large-scale public financing tosupport the much-needed transformation in the developing world. To succeed, thetransition must be just and ensure the rights of workers, peasants, women,migrants, and indigenous peoples. Here, public and community ownership iscrucial.
Social movements inthe Global South are already providing models of this approach. For example, LaVia Campesina – an international movement comprising peasants, smallholderfarmers, agricultural workers, rural women and youth, indigenous people, andothers – has shown how peasant agriculture and agroecology can cool the planet,feed its inhabitants, nurture its soil, support its forests, safeguard seeddiversity, and protect water basins.
Moreover, communityforest management helps to safeguard the forests, protecting the livelihoods ofthose who depend on them and preserving biodiversity. (As it stands, only 8% ofthe world's forests are in the hands of communities.)
With strong politicalwill and the right policies, we can systemically tackle climate change andrelated crises, including biodiversity loss, water scarcity, hunger, and risinginequality. If, however, we keep indulging the fantasy that some 'silverbullet solution will rescue us, progress will be impossible.
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