2024-01-09 18:46:00
© Michael Dantas/AFP via Getty Images
In response to the report of Copernicus Climate Change Service of the European Union confirming that 2023 was the hottest year on record, Ann Harrison, climate change policy advisor at Amnesty International, said:
“This alarming record shows that global climate warming is accelerating rapidly, with even more serious consequences for human rights. With the highest levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere on record, it is becoming increasingly clear that we have entered a deeply worrying era of climate instability.”
“This warming is worsening heat waves and droughts, increasing wildfires, intensifying rainfall and generating more violent storms, all of which can have a devastating effect on the environment, biodiversity and marginalized population groups.”
“Eight years after the signing of the Paris agreement on climate change, the 1.5ºC increase in global temperatures this century that was built in as a margin against the worst effects of climate change is practically exhausted.”
“This warming is worsening heat waves and droughts, increasing wildfires, intensifying rainfall and generating more violent storms, all of which can have a devastating effect on the environment, biodiversity and marginalized population groups.”
“Governments must urgently support an equitable transition to renewable energy, but too often they choose to violate or water down previous climate commitments and shirk their human rights responsibilities. “The influence of corporations on national and global decision-making means that the human rights of the majority are being sacrificed for the benefits of a powerful minority.”
“Indigenous peoples, who are typically excellent stewards of the environment, are often disproportionately affected by climate change and the exploitation of energy resources, as much of the planet’s remaining fossil fuels lie beneath their ancestral lands.”
“Civil society, willing governments, multilateral organizations, science specialists and climate activists must use a whole series of tools to break the iron grip of fossil fuels and end its financing and use.”Additional information
1.48 ºC more than pre-industrial levels. Although their records date back to 1850, Copernicus scientists suspect that 2023 was the warmest 12-month period in the last 100,000 years. Copernicus is the Earth observation component of the European Union’s space programme.
The effect of El Niño, which is believed to have exacerbated warming in 2023, is expected to last into 2024. The climate crisis threatens the universal right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, as well as many other rights, such as to life, health, and adequate housing and standard of living.
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