THE PRECARIOUS PATH OF HUMANKIND Widespread calls to reduce fossil fuels and speed up renewables “Our careless use of fossil fuels has set us on the greatest and most urgent challenges we have ever faced. If we do make the transition to renewables at the lighting speed required, humankind will ever look back on this generation with gratitude.” Nonagenarian naturalist David Attenborough: A life on our planet (book and Netflix documentary)
“We now have to move extraordinarily fast and compress progress of many decades into one decade mostly because the fossil fuel industry has lied and misled for so long and effectively and kept us from making progress. We do not need a bridge to a renewable future, the renewable future is there.” Also “People look at coal as Australia’s bad export but by far the most dangerous is Rupert Murdoch. When historians write how the planet became discombobulated that will be a big chapter. It’s still playing out.” Bill McKibben, founder of environmental group 350.org
“Emission reductions targets are life or death deadlines backed by science.” Frank Bainimarama Fijian Prime Minister
“If the world returns to pre-COVID energy consumption growth in 2021 the global carbon ‘budget’ for 1.5 degrees will be reached before 2030, possibly as early as 2024 according to some modelling.” Mark Diesendorf 48 SUMMER 2020
The failure to act urgently to reduce greenhouse gases would be “a brutal act of injustice toward the poor and future generations”. A “radical energy transition” is needed to stay within the 1.5°C limit and avoid catastrophic effects if we crossed that threshold. Pope Francis
“The key predictors of success in facing crises are acknowledgment rather than denial of a crisis’s reality, acceptance of responsibility to take action; honest selfappraisal, plus the presence or absence of a shared national identity.” Geographer and anthropologist Jarod Diamond in Upheaval: How nations cope with crisis and change
“Climate change is a defining factor in companies’ long-term prospects.” Larry Fink of global investment behemoth BlackRock
“142 globally significant financial institutions have formal coal exit policies. Fossil fuels are a wealth hazard.” Tim Buckley of IEEFA talking at Smart Energy Council’s Global Summit
“The world is on an unsustainable path and its carbon budget is running out… demand for oil and gas will be increasingly challenged.” BP chief executive Bernard Looney, from BP 2020 Energy Outlook. The 111-year-old company aims to be a net-zero emitter by 2050
