A 1.5˚C CHARTER (FOR COP26 AND BEYOND)
PREAMBLE
1. This charter sets out a new climate finance and justice paradigm for the 2020s:
2. That in considering how we can meet the global commitment to limit global heating to 1.5˚C, we need to consider that the human and economic costs of breaching this target and of rising temperatures in general may be far greater than the costs related to processes of decarbonisation;
3. The charter is presented in advance of COP26 and offers a response, specifically, to the findings of a recent interim report of the UNFCCC which revealed that, in terms of near-term targets, nationally determined contributions (NDCs) remain short and as such, leave us exposed to warming of 1.5˚C and higher in the decade ahead;
4. We recognise that 1.5˚C represents no literal threshold, where 1.4˚C is a safe environment and 1.6˚C a catastrophe;
5. However, we assert that meeting 1.5˚C, as demanded (since 2009) by the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of rising temperatures, remains a crucial benchmark of our collective decency as we set out to mitigate against, adapt to and repair what is already a climate changed world according to principles of common but differentiated responsibilities.
6. As such, we call on all parties to upscale ambition in 2021 and come forward with commitments that can deliver on viable pathways to 1.5˚C based on consistent 2025 and 2030 carbon budgets in addition to mid-century commitments;
7. And we call on all parties to endorse the following statements of principle and commitment, which are intended as a framework for future climate leadership that is commensurate with the scale and nature of the crisis we face:
STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLE
8. That the breach of 1.5˚C global warming, as with existing levels of rising global temperatures, comes with a cost;
9. That this cost is a global cost;
10. That this global cost is unequally distributed - both between generations and between countries and people across the planet;
11. That this cost is incurred as a consequence of delayed action - and that action has been and continues to be delayed in defence of private profit;
12. That such profits are also unequally distributed;
STATEMENT OF COMMITMENT
13. That, in order to meet the costs of rising global temperatures, mechanisms for appropriate climate finance could be developed to connect the profits gained through delayed climate action to the costs (and distribution of costs) incurred;
14. That since global costs are anticipated to vastly outweigh projected profits, time-frames for transition to a zero carbon future should be urgently set within economically viable limits;
15. That transition, too, through its dependency on the ongoing extraction of natural resources and consequent displacements, comes with a distribution of cost and profit;
16. That this distribution, like the distribution of climate impacts, poses a long-term threat to ecological and economic stability across the planet;
17. That moving forward, mechanisms for appropriate climate finance should therefore also recognise such potential impacts of transition and seek to advance processes of both mitigation and reparation from the outset.