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Global heating 2023

12/8/2023

It’s difficult to distill the records that are falling annually, monthly, and daily in 2023, and impossible to comprehend the horror behind the numbers. Average global warming for 2023 has been announced as 1.4°C, up from 1.2°C in 2022. We are witnessing accelerated warming on the cusp of a Southern El Nino Summer.

Measures

Earth energy imbalance (solar energy in / Earth energy out) is four times higher (and accelerating) than in 2023 than in 2001-2.
Global surface air temp at record high all but three days from 4 June through 23 November. 17 November was the first day that the global temperature exceeded 2°C above pre-industrial levels, reaching 2.07°C above the 1850-1900 average baseline and the provisional value for 18 November is 2.06°C (as shown in the chart below).
Sea surface temperature has been at a record high every day since 13 March and is now 0.8°C higher than the 1982-2011 baseline.
Global sea ice extent was at a record low every day between 22 May and 27 Oct.

Impacts

Just some of the impacts include:

Mediterranean ‘Storm’ Daniel (Sept 4-12). In Libya the destruction includes over 4,333 dead and between 10,000 to 100,000 people missing. While in Greece 17 were killed and around one third of Greece’s prime agricultural land flooded, with a recorded maximum of 1,092mm.
Otis, a rapidly intensifying storm that formed a category Cat 5 hurricane, caused 49 fatalities and over $11bn (US) in damage in Acapulco, Mexico.
2023 Canadian Wildfires burned ~ 18 million hectares (1.8% total land area, 3.7% Canada’s Boreal forest; more than 4 times the extent burned in any previous year in the satellite record.

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Building climate rescue policy options

12/8/2023

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The Climate Rescue Accord’s scope of work includes the development of a comprehensive suite of policy options to underpin each of the 3Rs, reduce, remove and repair.

While some high-level policies are non-negotiable (such as develop urgent roadmaps to near zero for all sectors) details will vary. Some parties might focus on renewable energy plus storage and others nuclear; high tech forms of agriculture versus regenerative agriculture options; different government levers or economic models. We aim to capture all in the Accord’s policy options, with pros, cons, tensions and unknowns highlighted.
To build the policy suite, the Accord working group will be surveying experts and distilling relevant information. This work is huge and will continue through 2024.

Get involved with policy development

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Getting the 3Rs message out

12/8/2023

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Since our September livestream the Accord working group is getting the climate rescue message out to MPs, NGOs and the public across a number of strategies.

December Letition - getting MPs up to speed

The Letition is a new platform generates a PDF to send to your Federal MP on a monthly climate-related issue. The December Letition asks your MP to meet with you on the 3Rs/climate rescue.

To send a climate rescue Letition to your MP, please 1) follow this link, 2) select the December option, 3) fill out your details and add any of your own words, 4) receive the generated pdf and 5) email to your MP using their address provided in the pdf. Then 6) ask your circles to do the same.

Generate a (December) 3Rs Letition for your MP

Getting the E-NGOs up to speed

Many politicians look to the big environmental NGOs (E-NGOs) for guidance on climate. Unfortunately, none of the E-NGOs advocate for stopping and reversing global warming. For example, the Climate Council advocates for reduce, which is just one piece of the puzzle to slow warming. The Climate Council does not advocate for remove and none of the E-NGOs advocate for repair (active cooling).

The Climate Rescue Accord working group has begun contacting Environmental NGOs asking them to advocate for all 3Rs. If you are a member or have a relationship with the Climate Council, ACF, WWF or FoE, please ask them to advocate for the full suite of actions required to stop and reverse warming.

Taking it to the streets

Rob Bates from Vote Climate One will be handing out Climate Rescue/3Rs pamphlets in Melbourne. Look out for a Grim Reaper in the vicinity of Elizabeth St.

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The Climate Rescue Accord Livestream, 20 September 2023

12/8/2023

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On September 20, the Accord working group ran a livestream on the 3Rs. Big thanks to:

Julie Byford OAM of the Women’s Environmental Leadership Association (WELA) for emceeing.
David Spratt from the National Centre for Safe Climate Restoration (Breakthrough) for his presentation on the state of climate and the 3Rs. (David’s slides are available on this page).

Eighty six attended on the night. Based on responses these attendees represented political parties and climate groups as well as MP’s offices. The 54-minute video is still generating hits.

Here are links to the main sections of the video:

1:56 Welcome and intro by Julie Byford OAM
6:58 Presentation on the 3Rs by David Spratt
28:40 The Climate Rescue Accord working group on purpose and goals
38:11 Q&A

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About the Climate Rescue Accord

12/8/2023

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The Climate Rescue Accord started last June as a conversation on climate policy between individuals from different minor parties. The resulting Accord working group committed to:

Pursuing what was required to stop and reverse warming with the ultimate goal of restoring a safe climate.
Building a comprehensive suite of policy options that underpin the 3Rs.
Reaching out to other parties, independents and environmental NGOs.

The 3Rs
The Accord working group understands that the path to stopping and reversing warming is the 3Rs:

Reduce fast to zero emissions.
Remove Drawdown excess greenhouse gases to reduce concentrations.
Repair - Active cooling - urgent R&D into immediate cooling strategies such as solar radiation management. We have left it too long for Reduce and Remove alone to prevent climate catastrophe, even at emergency speed.

The Accord’s goals are:

Hold global average temperature rise to the minimum possible, ensuring 2°C is not breached and temperatures return below 0.5°C.
Set a course to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations to preindustrial (safe) levels, based on credible scientific evidence.

Minimum demands across the 3Rs are:

Reduce (Fast to zero emissions)

Develop evidence-based roadmaps to near zero across all sectors for emergency implementation including energy and mining, transport, consumption and manufacturing, agriculture, land use, and construction. This includes:
- Stop fossil fuel expansion.
- Phase out fossil fuel use and extraction, including Scope 3 emissions and emissions resulting from fossil fuel exports.
- Prevent and phase out sources of methane release.

Remove (Drawdown)

Stop deforestation and land use change that releases CO2 and reduces sequestration potential and support industry change that makes large areas of land available for revegetation.
Sequester CO2 using natural means, such as rewilding.
Facilitate urgent R&D into industrial methods of greenhouse gas sequestration.

Repair (Active cooling)

Facilitate urgent R&D and international cooperation in the area of immediate cooling strategies:
- to compensate for the loss of the aerosol masking effect as we reduce fossil fuel emissions
- to actively cool until reduce and remove achieve a safe climate on their own.

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Climate rescue news

Global heating 2023

Building climate rescue policy options

Getting the 3Rs message out

The Climate Rescue Accord Livestream, 20 September 2023

About the Climate Rescue Accord

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