The IPCC considers degrowth to be key to mitigating climate change Juan Bordera / Fernando Prieto 08/07/2021 https://ctxt.es/es/20210801/Politica/36900/IPCC-cambio-climatico-colapso-medioambiental-decrecimiento.htm
In Spanish. Google translated version https://1drv.ms/u/s!AiXYIRE1zsiakUj5Yo8Kcds-Dlt_?e=16dGHm
Another part of the Sixth Report of IPCC most important report on the planet leaks.
- "It would be necessary for CO2 emissions to peak before 2025 and to reach net zero between 2050 and 2075".
- "No new coal or gas plants should be built, and the current ones should phased out to around 10 years.
-Net zero emissions requires a certain degree of carbon capture and sequestration and carbon removal (CDR-CCS-BECCS). But these technologies that are far from developed. The precautionary Principle should be followed while adopting these technologies.
- “The technological change implemented so far at a global level is not enough to achieve the climate or development objectives. Since 2010 the cost of renewable technologies has fallen, but in total, solar and wind account for 7% of the electricity supply. " Expected advances in other technologies such as carbon capture and sequestration, nuclear power and CDR (carbon dioxide removal) have been much less hopeful.
- “The growth in the consumption of energy and materials is the main cause of the increase in Greenhouse Gases (GHG). The slight decoupling of growth from energy use [and largely motivated by the relocation of production] has not been able to offset the effect of economic and population growth ”. This shows that technological developments that allow efficiency improvements and the shift towards low emission energy sources are not enough. Therefore, a very massive transition in the consumption of materials around the world, can even, temporarily, trigger emissions.
–It is hoped to be able to make a transition from the light combustion vehicle to the electric vehicle, while for heavy machinery it is recognized that there is still no appropriate technology (hence the questionable commitment to hydrogen), and more research should be done. The risk of running out of critical battery materials is explicitly mentioned, but it relies heavily on recycling materials.
– the current trajectory of Global warming is not only going to directly exceed those two degrees, but it will unleash even more the dreaded feedback mechanisms
- “It is not incompatible to fight against energy poverty and climate change. This is so because the big emitters are the richest: the richest 10% emit ten times more than the poorest 10%. That is why increasing the consumption of the poorest to basic subsistence levels would not increase emissions much ”.
–It also stands out the expansion of some emission-intensive economic activities, for example “aviation increasing by 28.5% from 2010 to 2020”. Despite this, at this point, the Spanish Government is happily giving millions for the expansions of the Barajas and El Prat airports. If the successive reports that the IPCC will make public in the coming months are followed, these projects should be seen as the absolute nonsense that they are, except for those who profit from them. Avoiding these extensions would be a good positive turning point, which could mean a change in dynamics.
– In scenarios that contemplate a reduction in energy demand, mitigation challenges are significantly reduced, with less dependence on CO2 removal (CDR), less pressure on land and lower prices. These scenarios do not imply a decrease in well-being, but rather a provision of better services. " This is literally a degrowth adaptation scenario.
there is no single policy mechanism or governance system that alone can accelerate the necessary transition. It would take a combination of these that will be different in each context.
Examples of mechanisms would be the legislative ones, which can incentivize mitigation or the creation of institutions and market mechanisms, as long as social justice is taken into account. Other factors that can help would be the climate social movements It also emphasizes that the measures to achieve reductions have to be changes in social behavior: less transport, relocation of work, a more vegetarian diet, etc.
the essential radical change in an economic system whose perverse operation of accumulation and reproduction of capital in perpetuity has brought us to the current critical point is not clearly mentioned.
