The urgent need for a child-centred Loss and Damage Fund by Cristina Coloon, Lucy Szaboova UNICEF, Save the Children, Plan, ICCCAD, LDYC   The world’s most marginalised children are already suffering the unavoidable impacts of climate change – death, displacement, malnutrition, the loss of education, and the destruction of traditional ways of life. These consequences are collectively known as climate-related loss and damage.   Since children have their whole lives ahead of them, such losses or damages suffered at an early age can lead to a lifetime of lost opportunity and can even affect future generations. That makes loss and damage related to climate change one of the greatest intergenerational injustices facing children today, threatening the rights enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child – such as the rights to survive and thrive, to protection, to clean water and food, to education and health, and to cultural heritage and indigenous knowledge.   Children have contributed the least to the climate crisis, yet they are suffering from its impacts more acutely than any previous generation.   The world has looked to climate finance to compensate those who have suffered the most due to climate change. Unfortunately, children’s unique needs and concerns have been largely overlooked in climate finance debates, a trend also reflected in climate finance allocations.   In 2022, nations agreed to set up a dedicated Loss and Damage Fund (L&D Fund), which is not only a significant milestone in climate negotiations, but also a chance to learn from past experiences of financing climate action. In fact, it is an opportunity to deliver climate justice for children on the frontline of the climate crisis.   Children’s first-hand accounts corroborate that climate-related loss and damage is part of their everyday realities. In a new report, Loss and Damage Finance for Children, 55 children, aged between 11 and 18, from diverse geographies share their experiences of loss and damage and recount memories of missing out on schooling, the loss or damage to their family home or livelihood, and even the loss of friends and family.   The children who shared with us their experiences unanimously demanded a seat at the table where discussions and decisions about loss and damage finance allocations take place. Their experiences and words make it clear that putting children’s rights at the heart of loss and damage finance is a matter of climate justice.   While the COP28 decision to launch the new L&D Fund recognizes youth as key stakeholders to participate in and shape the design, development and implementation of activities financed by the Fund, it only mentions children twice. To date, less than 2.4 per cent of climate finance has gone towards projects incorporating activities responsive to children’s needs.   At the same time, the way climate finance works now is pushing the countries most affected by the climate crisis into a debt crisis. When countries vulnerable to climate change are locked into a vicious cycle of indebtedness, with debt accumulating in tandem with accelerating losses and damages, compromises in public spending on essential services like education and healthcare often become inevitable. This has dire implications for children’s well-being and development.   It is important that the new L&D Fund, and loss and damage finance more broadly, break away from existing climate finance approaches.   The L&D Fund is a chance to ensure that present and future generations of children can thrive and fully exercise their rights. But this requires:   Recognizing children’s unique needs and vulnerabilities; facilitating their participation in decisions about the allocation and use of funding; ensuring the equitable distribution of loss and damage finance; and restoring children’s dignity when losses and damages are unavoidable.   Above all, it requires funding – sufficient, equitable, accessible and sustainable resources for meaningfully addressing the losses and damages suffered by children and their families.   It is crucial then that children’s rights are elevated, and their voices are amplified in discussions about implementing the L&D Fund as well as in setting the new global goal on climate finance. It is essential that this goal – called the New Common Quantified Goal – not only recognizes loss and damage as a critical pillar of climate finance, but that it is informed by the needs of climate-vulnerable children. We must not miss this opportunity to deliver climate justice for children.   * Cristina Coloon is Policy Specialist, UNICEF Innocenti; Lucy Szaboova is Climate Change and Environment Research Fellow, University of Exeter.   # Read the report Loss and Damage Finance for Children by UNICEF, Save the Children, Plan International, the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) and the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition (LDYC).   http://www.unicef.org/blog/urgent-need-child-centred-loss-and-damage-fund http://www.unicef.org/innocenti/reports/loss-and-damage-finance-children http://www.endchildhoodpoverty.org/publications-feed/climatechange   25 April 2024   Extreme heat has forced the closure of all schools in Bangladesh this week, impacting 33 million children, as temperatures soared to 42°C (108 F), 16 degrees more than the annual average, Save the Children said.   This is the second consecutive year that Bangladesh has been forced to close schools and comes just weeks after heat-induced school closures in both the Philippines and South Sudan. This shows how children’s rights are increasingly under threat from the intensifying impacts of the climate crisis, Save the Children said.   Bangladesh is one of the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis, with the Global Climate Risk Index classifying the low-lying country as the seventh most extreme disaster risk-prone country in the world in 2021. Tropical cyclones, floods and coastal erosion are common, and last year, Bangladesh experienced its worst-ever dengue outbreak which killed more than 1,000 people. Experts blamed the outbreak on the climate crisis and El Nino-driven weather patterns which created an extraordinarily wet monsoon season.   Like in many parts of the world, rising temperatures are also causing extreme heatwaves and drought in the country, with the government closing primary and secondary schools in June last year due to heat. A total of 33 million of Bangladesh’s 54 million children are enrolled in school.   More than 1 billion children, about half the world’s 2.4 billion children, live in countries highly susceptible to - and in many cases already experiencing – the effects of climate change. Children affected by poverty and inequality are even more vulnerable, with Save the Children research showing that one third of the world’s child population live with the dual impacts of poverty and high climate risk.   The high temperatures have prompted Bangladesh’s health ministry to issue guidelines to help people in the world’s eighth most populated country to cope and avoid heat stroke. They include drinking 2.5 – 3 litres of water a day and to rest in shaded areas.   Shumon Sengupta, Country Director Bangladesh, Save the Children International, said:   “Extreme heat jeopardises children’s physical and mental health – and it also has a significant impact on education. Even when classrooms are still open, children struggle to concentrate – US-based research suggests that each degree Fahrenheit increase in temperature throughout a school year reduces the amount learned by 1%.   “Children in Bangladesh are among the poorest in the world, and heat-related school closures should ring alarm bells for us all. Leaders need to act now to urgently reduce warming temperatures, as well as factoring children – particularly those affected by poverty, inequality and discrimination - into decision making and climate finance.”   Last year, 2023, was the planet’s hottest year since records began in 1850 and saw global temperatures rise 1.18°C (2.12°F) above the 20th-century average of 13.9°C (57.0°F).   http://www.savethechildren.net/news/bangladesh-extreme-heat-closes-all-schools-and-forces-33-million-children-out-classrooms http://www.savethechildren.net/news/report-one-three-children-globally-face-double-threat-high-climate-risk-and-crushing-poverty http://www.savethechildren.net/node/2034 http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/document/generation-hope-2-4-billion-reasons-to-end-the-global-climate-and-inequality-crisis/ http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/keywords/climate-change/ http://www.unicef.org/reports/coldest-year-rest-of-their-lives-children-heatwaves http://www.unicef.org/stories/heat-waves-impact-children http://ceh.unicef.org/spotlight-risk/extreme-heat http://www.unicef.org/topics/climate-change-and-impacts http://www.unicef.org/environment-and-climate-change Visit the related web page
	How conflict drives hunger for women and girls by UN Women, The Lancet, HRC, CarbonBrief, agencies   Apr. 2024   How conflict drives hunger for women and girls, by Jemimah Njuki and Carla Kraft. (UN Women)   Women around the world face the brunt of severe hunger, with conflicts exacerbating the inequality. Ending this discrimination requires empowering more women and girls to lead on building peace and food security for all.   Hunger is both a cause and result of conflict. And for the more than 614 million women and girls living in conflict-affected places, hunger is a reality. In countries facing conflict and hunger, women often eat last and least—sacrificing for their families.   Conflict can cause food shortages and the severe disruption of economic activities, threatening the means of survival of entire populations. Additionally, wars commonly trigger the displacement of huge numbers of people, most of them women and girls, cutting them off from their food supplies and livelihoods.   Conflict reduces the amount of food available and people’s ability to access food, food markets, and healthcare. Conflict and displacement have also forced women to abandon their jobs or miss planting seasons.   Of the 345 million people who are severely hungry in the world right now, nearly 60 per cent are women and girls. The proportion is higher in countries suffering from conflict, where women are trapped in a cycle of disadvantage, poverty, and displacement. In countries and regions including Afghanistan, Ukraine, Gaza, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Africa’s Sahel region, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, women and girls are facing hunger crises due to conflict and fragility.   In Syria, the war has pushed more women to become the main breadwinners, many having to work for the first time with few skills to secure a decent job and fair pay. What little they make barely covers their families’ expenses. According to an Oxfam study, women-headed households are among the hardest hit by hunger, reporting a significant decline in their food consumption, and having to skip meals.   At the height of the crisis in Ukraine, assessments showed food security and mental health were bigger worries for women than men, with 52 per cent of Ukrainian women surveyed saying food security was one of their biggest concerns, compared with just 29 per cent of men.   A UN Women report shows that war-induced food price hikes and shortages have widened the global gender gap in food insecurity, as women reduce their own food intake to give it to other household members.   Women-headed households in Ukraine were already more food insecure prior to the war, with 37.5 per cent of them experiencing moderate or severe levels of food insecurity compared with 20.5 per cent of male-headed households. Rural women in the territories occupied by the Russian military were increasingly unable to perform agricultural work due to high insecurity and lack of resources.   And the entire population of 2.3 million people in Gaza are facing acute levels of food insecurity, with women finding it harder than men to access food. A report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) found that more than half of all Palestinians in Gaza—1.1 million people—have completely exhausted their food supplies and are facing catastrophic hunger.   And with most of Gaza’s fertile farmland having been destroyed and almost all agricultural, livestock, and fishing production halted, this is likely to worsen. The most affected are women, especially mothers and those breastfeeding, and children.   There are many interconnected reasons that conflict causes disproportionate increases in hunger among women and girls, but they boil down to social and economic roles that have been shaped by pervasive gender discrimination. Women are the family caregivers, assuming sole or primary responsibility for taking care of children, elders, and family members who are ill.   This disproportionate impact on women and girls has further consequences. To cope, some families have resorted to early and forced marriage for girls to sustain themselves. Food-related livelihood activities such as tending fields, foraging for food, or fetching water make women and girls vulnerable to conflict-related sexual violence where conflict parties use such violence.   The scarcity of food during conflict forces women and girls to travel further from their villages in search of nourishment, increasing the likelihood of their encountering armed groups who may use sexual violence. Both the threat and actual experience of conflict-related sexual violence impact the well-being of women and girls (as well as their wider families) and affect their ability to provide food and care for their families.   Women have also, however, risen to the challenge of feeding their families and communities during conflict. Experience and evidence show that women are more likely to spend their incomes on food, healthcare, and education. Hence, their engagement and leadership are critical for post-conflict recovery.   Targeting women as the first beneficiaries of food aid and social protection, as well as helping them and their communities to complete harvests, can contribute significantly to improving household resilience and to peacebuilding.   While the connections between conflict and food insecurity are complex, and better information is needed on the issue, including how conflict aggravates the political and structural violence that contributes to food insecurity, there are several actions that the international community can prioritize.   First is strengthening women’s and girls’ voice, agency, participation, and leadership in conflict response, recovery, and peacebuilding. Research has shown that a higher presence of female signatories in peace processes decreases the likelihood of food insecurity in post-conflict societies.   Second is promoting and protecting the right to food by targeting the specific nutrition needs of women and girls, and accelerating the transformation toward more equitable, gender-responsive, and sustainable food systems, as well as equitable access to inputs, technologies, and markets by women.   Third is enhancing gender statistics and sex-disaggregated data to build the evidence base for gender-responsive policy, planning, and reconstruction measures, and to track and monitor the gender-related impacts of food insecurity and energy poverty on women and girls.   Fourth is including food security interventions in peace processes. Sustaining peace encompasses activities aimed at preventing the outbreak, escalation, continuation, and recurrence of conflict, including addressing root causes and moving toward recovery, reconstruction, and development.   Opportunities exist for interventions supporting food and nutrition security and agricultural livelihoods to contribute to conflict prevention and sustaining peace and gender equality—so that not only the symptoms but also the root causes of conflicts are addressed.   In 2018, the United Nations Security Council passed a historic resolution recognizing that hunger drives forced displacement—and, conversely, that forced displacement can have a devastating impact on agricultural production. Hunger will never be eliminated without global peace. This resolution called on all parties to armed conflict to comply fully with international humanitarian law and to protect civilian infrastructure critical for the proper functioning of food production and supply systems. International humanitarian law sets out measures to mitigate the impact of armed conflict on civilians.   What is without doubt is that empowering women and girls can end hunger for good and transform whole communities in the process.   http://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/op-ed/2024/03/op-ed-how-conflict-drives-hunger-for-women-and-girls   Starvation as a weapon of war must stop. (The Lancet)   The theme of World Health Day on April 7 is ‘my health, my right’, underscoring the UN's assertion that “every human being is entitled to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health conducive to living a life in dignity”.   In this week's issue, the report from Under threat: the International AIDS Society–Lancet Commission on Health and Human Rights examines the steady deterioration of the global commitment to human rights in the 21st century, with serious and increasingly damaging effects on health.   Shockingly, one of the most basic of rights, access to food, remains unattainable for the 691 to 783 million people who were food insecure in 2022. In conflict zones, where nearly 60% or 158 million hungry people live, conflict has displaced populations, destroyed economies and infrastructure, and led to high prices for scarce goods.   Moreover, the destruction of the food supply can be deliberately used to starve people as a weapon of war, which has been more commonplace since 2010. One stark and distressing current example: the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has stated that there is a plausible case that Israel is now using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza. Why is starving people to death increasingly occurring and why do countries and the UN allow it to continue?   According to Alex DeWaal, the Director of the World Peace Foundation, about two-thirds of the people facing hunger “live in war or violence zones”.   Sudan, for example, is facing a famine due to conflict with nearly 18 million people experiencing acute food insecurity. In Ukraine, 11 million people are hungry, owing to Russia's targeting of Ukrainian ports and grain production.   Aid budgets are insufficient for delivering food aid to war zones and aid itself is dependent upon negotiations with warring parties. In Yemen in 2014, the Saudi-backed coalition effectively blockaded the ports in a country that already had widespread malnourishment. Only once widespread mortality had set in was a truce agreed upon. The inevitable outcome was that by the start of 2022, UNDP estimated that the conflict had caused more than 377 000 deaths, with 60% of these deaths the result of hunger, lack of health care, and unsafe water.   Accountability mechanisms are important, but only when heeded. One such initiative is the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), convened by a Famine Review Committee (FRC), of leading humanitarian agencies. The FRC uses a standardised five-point scale to measure hunger, as an early warning system to begin aid before people are starving. For the Famine classification to be declared, an area must have at least 20% of households facing an extreme lack of food, at least 30% of children suffering from acute malnutrition, and two people for every 10 000 dying each day due to starvation or malnutrition and disease. Application of the scale in Gaza concluded that Gaza was above IPC Acute Food Insecurity Phase V (Catastrophe) thresholds. The FRC's calls of Catastrophe have so far not led to sufficient aid reaching the Gazan population.   Despite attempts by combatants and countries to justify starvation of a civilian population as an outcome of war, the Nobel Prize winner in Economics, Amartya Sen argues otherwise. He said, when talking about the Great Bengal and Ethiopian Famines, that understanding starvation necessitates understanding entitlements. Existing economic systems allow some people to be entitled to food, while others are allowed to starve.   This is often the case in conflict zones, where those with means might be able to barter until food aid arrives or they are able to leave the conflict zone. As a result, the most vulnerable, such as pregnant and lactating women and their babies, suffer the greatest burden in terms of morbidity and mortality.   What can be done to hold perpetrators of starvation accountable? Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General, and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, have been powerful voices expressing outrage when the rules of war have been violated. They have used their offices courageously to criticise member-states that have broken international humanitarian law. But, as the International AIDS Society–Lancet Commission correctly points out, the UN Security Council inconsistently addresses and rarely enforces international human rights law in conflict settings.   The reality is that geopolitical rivalries prevent collective political action to stop inhumane and illegal actions by rogue governments. As wars worsen and leave deep scars in the moral conscience of the international community, health leaders must insist on the centrality of human rights to protect vulnerable and innocent populations struggling in conflict settings. The use of starvation as a weapon of war is a crime that must be prosecuted and punished to protect the most basic right of all: human dignity.   http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)00684-6/fulltext http://www.thelancet.com/commissions/health-and-human-rights   Apr. 2024   30th anniversary of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker:   "Ahead of the 30th anniversary of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, I grieve the more than one million men, women and children who were killed in cold blood in barely 100 days – the vast majority of them Tutsi, and some Hutu, Twa and others who courageously opposed the genocide. The victims must never be forgotten.   I also salute the many hundreds of thousands of survivors for their bravery. Their resilient pursuit of justice, unity and reconciliation over the decades should inspire us all.   I urge States everywhere to redouble their efforts to bring all surviving suspected perpetrators to justice – including through universal jurisdiction – and to combat hate speech and incitement to commit genocide. The Rwandan genocide may have erupted on 7 April 1994, but it was rooted in years of dehumanizing hatred, incitement and discrimination.   The tragic events of 1994 in Rwanda should forever shock the conscience of humanity and be a constant reminder to States of the need to do everything in their power to prevent the crime of genocide worldwide".   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/04/comment-un-high-commissioner-human-rights-volker-turk-ahead-30th-anniversary http://www.hrw.org/news/2024/04/02/rwanda-genocide-archives-released   Apr. 2024   UN Committee on the Rights of the Child cancels upcoming session due to UN Funding Crisis, highlights Bede Sheppard - Deputy Director, Children's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch   In an unprecedented move, the United Nations committee of independent child rights experts has cancelled an upcoming series of meetings due to lack of funds. The shortfall was caused by the failure of some countries to pay their membership dues.   This is the latest example of the UN’s human rights monitoring role being undermined by a lack of budgeted funds, and comes on the heels of vacancy freezes at the global organization, and a forced reduction of field investigations conducted by its rights experts.   At the now-cancelled session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the experts were expected to meet – in a safe and confidential manner – with children, civil society organizations, and UN agencies to discuss the child rights records of eight countries.   The cancellation means less scrutiny of developments in Ecuador, where escalating violence and organized crime activity is having a dire impact on children’s rights, particularly girls who have a right to study in safety.   It also means the situation in Ethiopia may further fly under the radar, even as children are killed, injured, and sexually assaulted; and schools attacked and used by military forces, in the conflicts in the country’s north.   The experts will no longer have the opportunity to learn about girls from Indonesia who may have been forced to leave school or withdraw under pressure, due to their decision not to follow local mandatory hijab regulations.   It will now be more difficult for the committee to learn about the ill treatment of children in government-run detention centers in Iraq, or the government’s failure to prohibit corporal punishment against children. And the voices of girls unable to exercise their right to education in Pakistan will continue to be silenced. If the committee cannot learn about these problems, they also cannot make recommendations for change.   Deadbeat governments that haven’t paid their assessed contributions should pay their fair share of the UN’s budget. Otherwise, they are only helping child rights abusers evade being held to account.   http://childrightsconnect.org/joint-letter-on-the-cancellation-of-the-crc-may-pre-session http://www.hrw.org/news/2024/04/04/child-rights-abuses-go-unchallenged-due-un-funding-crisis http://www.ohchr.org/en/treaty-bodies/crc   28 Mar. 2024   Cancellation of UN climate weeks removes platform for worst-hit communities, writes Dulce Marrumbe head of advocacy at WaterAid’s regional office for Southern Africa. (Climate Home News)   The UNFCCC has said it will not hold regional climate weeks in 2024 due to a funding shortfall – which means less inclusion for developing-country voices.   If the world’s most vulnerable are not at the table, then UN climate talks are no longer fit for purpose.   This week, the UN climate change body (UNFCCC) confirmed that this year’s Regional Climate Weeks will be cancelled until further notice due to lack of funding.   The update comes shortly after UNFCCC chief Simon Stiell made an urgent plea at the Copenhagen Climate Ministerial last week to plug the body’s funding gap, stating that it is facing “severe financial challenges” – putting a rising workload at risk due to “governments’ failure to provide enough money”.   The suspension of the Regional Climate Weeks is hugely disappointing news. It means that a vital platform to express the concerns of people and communities most affected by climate change has been taken away.   The climate weeks are a vital opportunity to bring a stronger regional voice – those who are footing the bill in developing countries for a crisis they have done the least to cause – to the international table in the lead-up to the UN COP climate summits.   Last year we saw four regional climate weeks. These attracted 26,000 participants in 900 sessions and brought together policymakers, scientists and other experts from the multiple regions, with fundamental contributions feeding into the COP28 agenda.   Extremes of both drought and floods are threatening people’s access to the essentials they need to survive. Around the world, ordinary people – farmers, community leaders, family members – are doing everything they can to try to adapt to the realities of life on the frontlines of climate change.   Each Regional Climate Week provides a vital platform for those shouldering the heaviest burden of the climate crisis – such as women and girls, people experiencing marginalisation, and Indigenous communities – to share their experiences, expertise, and unique perspectives.   The climate crisis is a water crisis, and the people on the frontlines of this crisis are vital to solving it. With leadership and participation from those vulnerable communities and groups, we are all better equipped to try to adapt to our changing climate – and to ensure that everyone, everywhere has climate-resilient water, sanitation and hygiene.   Each and every UN climate conference matters. We urgently need global governments to fuel their words with action, open their wallets and prioritise the voices, experiences and solutions of those most affected by the climate crisis. If not, we’ll continue to see climate change wash away people’s futures.   http://www.wateraid.org/media/World-1.5c-breach-marks-cataclysmic-failure-in-protecting-the-most-vulnerable http://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/over-24-million-people-southern-africa-face-hunger-malnutrition-and-water-scarcity-0 http://www.carbonbrief.org/climate-change-made-west-africas-dangerous-humid-heatwave-10-times-more-likely/ http://www.unicef.org/zimbabwe/press-releases/rising-heat-drought-and-disease-climate-crisis-poses-grave-risks-children-eastern http://reliefweb.int/report/angola/humanitarian-impact-el-nino-southern-africa-key-messages-march-2024   Apr. 2024   Fossil fuel companies have increased their output of fossil fuels and related emissions since the Paris Climate Agreement. (InfluenceMap Carbon Majors)   57 major oil, gas and coal producers are directly linked to 80% of the world’s global fossil CO2 emissions since the 2016 Paris climate agreement, a new Carbon Majors study has revealed.   This group of state-controlled corporations and shareholder-owned multinationals are the leading drivers of the climate crisis, according to the InfluenceMap Carbon Majors Database, which is compiled by world-renowned researchers.   Although governments pledged in the Paris Climate Agreement to cut greenhouse gases, the analysis reveals that most major producers increased their output of fossil fuels and related emissions in the seven years after that climate agreement, compared with the seven years before.   "The majority of fossil fuel companies totaled higher production in the seven years after the Paris Agreement compared to the seven-year period before. 65% of state-owned companies and 55% of investor-owned companies showed higher production in 2016–2022 than in 2009–2015".   "The increase in production by state- and investor-owned companies after the Paris Agreement compared to before is most prevalent in Asia. All 5 Asian investor-owned companies and 8 out of the 10 Asian state-owned entities are linked to higher emissions in 2016–2022 compared to 2009–2015. This is primarily shaped by rising emissions from Asian coal production".   In the database of 122 of the world’s biggest historical climate polluters, the researchers found that 65% of state entities and 55% of private-sector companies had scaled up production.   During this period, the biggest investor-owned contributor to emissions was ExxonMobil of the United States, which was linked to 3.6 gigatonnes of CO2 over seven years. Close behind were Shell, BP, Chevron and TotalEnergies. A striking trend, was the surging growth of emissions related to state and state-owned producers, particularly in Asia.   The fossil fuel expansion runs contrary to the warning by the International Energy Agency and leading climate scientists that no new oil, coal and gas fields can be opened if the world is to stay within safe limits of global heating.   Climate scientists have emphasized global temperatures are rapidly approaching the Paris target of 1.5C above the pre-industrial era, with potentially dire consequences for people and the rest of nature beyond this threshold.   “It is morally reprehensible for companies to continue expanding exploration and production of carbon fuels in the face of knowledge now for decades that their products are harmful,” said Richard Heede, who established the Carbon Majors dataset in 2013. “Don’t blame consumers who have been forced to be reliant on oil and gas due to government capture by oil and gas companies.”   The Carbon Majors database includes a comparison between long-term emissions trends dating back to 1854, and more recent developments since the 2016 Paris deal. The historical record encompasses 122 entities linked to 72% of all the fossil fuel and cement CO2 emissions since the start of the industrial revolution, which amounts to 1,421 gigatonnes.   In this long-term analysis, Chinese state coal production accounts for 14% of historic global C02, the biggest share by far in the database. This is more than double the proportion of the former Soviet Union, which is in second place, and more than three times higher than that of Saudi Aramco, which is in third.   Then comes the big US companies – Chevron and ExxonMobil, followed by Russian’s Gazprom and the National Iranian Oil Company. After that are two investor-owned European firms: BP and Shell and then Coal India.   The 21st century rise of Asia becomes apparent when the historical records are compared with data from 2016-2022. In this recent period, the China coal share leaps to more than a quarter of all CO2 emission, while Saudi Aramco goes up to nearly 5%. The top 10 in this modern era is dominated by Chinese and Russian state entities and filled out with those from India and Iran.   The picture may change again in the future. The United States is the world’s biggest oil and gas producer even if operations are fragmented among many different companies. The U.S. has granted licences to multiple new exploration projects. Gulf states are also planning to step up their output.   Richard Heede says that fossil fuel producers have a moral obligation to pay for the damages they have caused and exacerbated through their delaying tactics. He cites the proposal made by Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados, for oil and gas companies to contribute at least 10 cents in every dollar to a climate loss and damage fund.   Daan Van Acker, program manager at InfluenceMap, said many of the entities in the Carbon Majors database were moving in the wrong direction for climate stability.   “InfluenceMap’s new analysis shows that this group is not slowing down production, with most entities increasing production after the Paris agreement. This research provides a crucial link in holding these energy giants to account on the consequences of their activities.”   "The Carbon Majors research shows us who is responsible for the lethal heat, extreme weather, and air pollution that is threatening lives and wreaking havoc on our environment. These companies have made billions of dollars in profits while denying the problem and delaying and obstructing climate policy".   "They are spending millions on advertising campaigns about being part of a sustainable solution, all the while continuing to invest in more fossil fuel extraction. These findings emphasize that, more than ever, we need our governments to stand up to these companies, to end the era of fossil fuels and ensure a truly just transition." - Tzeporah Berman, Chair at Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty   http://carbonmajors.org/briefing/The-Carbon-Majors-Database-26913 http://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/fossil-gas/the-supermajors-plans-could-kill-115-million-people/ http://globalenergymonitor.org/report/drilling-deeper-2024-global-oil-gas-extraction-tracker/ http://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-new-oil-and-gas-projects-since-2021-could-emit-14bn-tonnes-of-co2/ http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/04/global-large-companies-must-do-far-more-to-cut-carbon-emissions-and-limit-climate-damage/ http://insideclimatenews.org/news/04042024/fossil-fuel-companies-homicide-charge/ http://www.unicef.org/blog/urgent-need-child-centred-loss-and-damage-fund http://www.endchildhoodpoverty.org/publications-feed/climatechange   http://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-climate-adaptation-becomes-less-effective-as-the-world-warms/ http://www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/latest-news/climate-change-risk-to-price-stability-higher-average-temperatures-increase-inflation-1 http://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-01173-x http://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/climate-change/indians-may-already-be-experiencing-temperatures-close-to-limits-of-human-survivability-without-even-being-aware-95278 http://www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/latest-news/amazon-rainforest-at-the-threshold-loss-of-forest-worsens-climate-change http://wmo.int/news/media-centre/climate-change-indicators-reached-record-levels-2023-wmo
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