Urgent Call to World Leaders to Prevent Catastrophic Climate Change: To Commit to CO2 Reductions ...

The United Nations Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP21) in Paris draws to a close in just a few days. This global conference is our last chance to tackle catastrophic climate change. If the negotiations fail, there is no plan B -- COP21 is effectively the end of the line.

In 1992, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was established to "stabilize greenhouse gas concentration". Since then we have endured failed negotiations, broken promises, distant targets and shattered hope.

At COP21 world leaders must commit to take effective and practical steps to prevent average global temperature increases of above 1.5°C. According to climate scientists, existing pledges by governments fall short of achieving the target of 2°C, which itself is woefully inadequate. Even now many countries are starting to feel the devastating impact of climate change.

In the last 250 years, average global temperatures have already increased by 1.0°C. The Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) submitted by governments up to now, even if fully implemented, will actually increase warming to around 2.7°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100. For decades, scientists have been warning us about the threats of climate change and its impact on the world: How parts of Africa, South Asia and Latin America will heat up more and more, with temperatures becoming increasingly intolerable; how rising sea levels will endanger billions of people, particularly those in low-lying countries such as Bangladesh, the Marshall Islands and the Maldives, as well as people in cities such as Tokyo, Shanghai, New York and London; how melting glaciers will flood river valleys and then, when they have disappeared, unprecedented droughts will occur.

Pope Francis issued a dire warning to the world when addressing the UN General Assembly: “The ecological crisis and the large-scale destruction of biodiversity can threaten the very existence of the human species.”

World leaders can no longer ignore the warnings. COP21 is their last chance to prevent catastrophic climate change. They must deliver a comprehensive, just and legally binding climate agreement with adequate provisions for mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, Green Climate Fund financial investments, technology development and transfer, and implementation mechanisms, with safeguards for traditional communities, indigenous peoples’ rights and an emphasis on human rights and gender equality. They must commit to ensuring the integrity and resilience of natural ecosystems, restore degraded and deforested land and to transfer subsidies from fossil fuel and nuclear to renewable energy.

We must not forget that we are fighting for our survival, the survival of our children and our children’s children – the survival of future generations. Beyond that, we are fighting for the preservation of all life on Earth.

We urge you to sign this Appeal. Time is running out.

UPDATE: I am very concerned about the outcome of the UNFCCC climate conference, COP21. We already had enough reasons to be pessimistic about the agreement, especially after we learnt the INDC results of 170 countries, which will put the world on course for an average warming of 2.8°C by 2100 or 3.3°C according to a new report by Global Citizens Initiative and Earth Action, which will cause irreversible and catastrophic climate change. Now, following the terrorist attacks in Paris I fear that it will be even more difficult to focus the attention of world leaders on the threat of climate change.

Since the launch of the petition we have received a tremendous response and have the support and endorsement of:
Bianca Jagger, Founder and President of the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation
Frederic Mion, President of the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po)
Craig Calhoun, Director of the London School of Economics (LSE)
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu

From academia:
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, Co-Chair of the International Bar Association Report on Climate Change and Human Rights and Principal of Mansfield College
John Joughin, Vice-Chancellor of the University of East London (UEL)
Erik Berglof, Director of the Institute of Global Affairs (LSE)
Alan Rusbridger, Principal Lady Margaret Hall and former editor of The Guardian
Anna Grear, Director of the Global Network for the Study of Human Rights and the Environment (GNHRE)
Karen Morrow, Editor of the Journal of Human Rights and the Environment
Tom Kerns, Director of Environment and Human Rights Advisory (HRA)
Damien Short, Director of the Human Rights Consortium, School of Advanced Study, University of London
Rosalind Reeves, Ateneo School of Government

Right Livelihood Award Laureates, also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize:
Alison Linnecar, Convenor of the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) Working Group
Alyn Ware, Founder of the Network Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND)
Angie Zelter, Founder of Trident Ploughshares
Anwar Fazal, Director of the Right Livelihood College
Bill McKibben, Co-Founder of 350.org
Bishop Erwin Krautler, Bishop of Xingu
Camille Pelleger, International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN)
Chico Whitaker, Representative of the Brazilian Justice and Peace Commission to the World Social Forum
David Suzuki, Scientist, Broadcaster and Founder of the David Suzuki Foundation
Gino Strada, Executive Director of Emergency
Jumanda Gakelebone, representative of First People of the Kalahari
Hans Herren, CEO of the Millennium Institute
Ida Kuklina, The Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers of Russia
Jose Ramon Villarin, President, Ateneo de Manila University
Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera, Founder of Freedom and Roam Uganda (FARUG)
Martin Green, Sciential Professor at the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics
Paul Walker, Director of Environmental Security and Sustainability at Green Cross International
Raul Montenegro, President of the Environment Defense Foundation (FUNA...