Motion #05
Green Party members are aware that the planet is facing a Global Climate and Ecological Emergency.
A recent survey of the world’s climate scientists found that nearly all of them thought that limiting global heating to 1.5C was unachievable, a large majority foresaw global heating of 2.5 C and nearly half foresaw global temperatures peaking at at least 3C. (1)
Meanwhile there is also a biodiversity crisis, with an estimated 1 million species threatened with extinction for climate change related reasons. (2)
The consequences of the above will be extremely severe, if not catastrophic, and will require co-ordinated global action to slow the rate at which predicted global heating takes place and to mitigate against its consequences, not least the hundreds of millions of climate refugees who are already beginning to move. (3)
This global action will have to be taken by the world’s political leaders, politicians of UN member states. Given the urgency of the situation such actions will have to be taken by existing world leaders or their immediate successors. For the most part these are not politicians Greens would choose. However, we are unlikely to be able to replace them in time so will have to make demands of them.,
All politicians are subject to popular pressure, even those with do not have to face democratic elections. However, these same politicians are also subject to enormous pressure from fossil fuel interests and their financial backers and will only even begin to stand up to them if subject to comparable pressure from their voters and citizens.
There is therefore an urgent need for an effective international climate action campaign, capable of forcing leaders across the world to make effective and enforceable international climate action agreements to ensure humanity’s future, based on principles of social and global justice, and drawing on the expertise of the world’s best climate scientists.
Greens across the world, as members of their constituent parties but also as members of a global green movement, are well placed to contribute to building this international campaign, the focus of which would likely be international climate summits attended by world leaders, such as COPs. The GPEW, as the Green Party of the world’s oldest fossil fuel polluter, should prioritise building this campaign, which is what this motion seeks to commit it to doing.
It is an initiative which would not be an alternative to its highly effective target to win electioneering but a necessary complement to it.
Last updated on 2024-09-08 at 15:20