Bishop Philip Huggins writes from the Riverina region of NSW, Australia, on a farm which is part of the Biodiversity Conservation Trust. We are helping with plantings which take account of climate change. See https://www.bct.nsw.gov.au/. He writes that he is meeting wonderful people who are doing what they can to transition to renewables and help this area respond to current realities of climate change.
This week I am in the Riverina region of NSW, Australia, on a farm which is part of the Biodiversity Conservation Trust. We are helping with plantings which take account of climate change. See https://www.bct.nsw.gov.au/. I am meeting wonderful people who are doing what they can to transition to renewables and help this area respond to current realities of climate change.
One of the farmers is taking time out from this urgent work to attend the funeral of Murray Littlejohn – a man who helped us better understand local frogs so as to prevent their inadvertent extinction. We were told lovely stories of his quiet listening in watery places, recording their sounds; his contribution to anuran bioacoustics research.
And yet, only last week it was the Pacific leaders at CHOGM and the UN Secretary-General conveying how survival of planetary life depends on decisions made now.
With UNCOP 29 in Baku, Azerbaijan beginning from November 11, we know the quality of unprecedented unity and action which needs to happen at the COP:
- Nations must update their Nationally Determined Contributions [NDC], as is called for by the guiding Paris Agreement.
- These updates must be ambitious and transparent so as to give hope that we can still keep below 1.5 degrees warming.
- Without honest and generous ambition, the drift will continue towards a catastrophic 3.1 degrees of warming.
- These NDC’s must include clear commitments on mitigation, adaptation and must address the kind of losses and damage many are already suffering, as Pacific leaders poignantly conveyed last week.
- All countries must prioritise the urgent phase -out of fossil fuels.
There must be no more compromises, no more talk of magical geo engineering solutions that prolong fossil fuel use. No unnecessary distractions like the idea of nuclear power plants here, already sufficiently critiqued as folly.
Ambitious climate action is what is needed. This includes much in the area of ‘climate finance’ so those most in need have the capacity to mitigate the current effects of climate change and make sensible adaptations to what we know is coming.
Crucially, cooperative climate action at COP29 is also action for peace.
It says, should it happen, that we prioritise our collective future over national rivalries, enmities and corporate interests.
UNCOP29 is being held in Azerbaiijan, a country south of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and bordering Iran, and which relies on oil and gas for 90% of its export income. This location for UNCOP29 is obviously problematic and, writing now in late October, it does not seem a sane place for such a crucial meeting.
Crucial, yes, because after 28 previous COP’s, this one needs to do so much more than any previous. The ambitious outcomes need to be agreed quickly so implementation is not delayed.
Locally, we are in a relatively safe place and with boundless opportunities to provide regional neighbours with encouragement by the pace and quality of our own transition to renewables. Locally, many Australians are cooperating so wonderfully.
The desperate need is for intelligent bipartisan cooperation.
This transition to a society that is net zero carbon emissions is so complex and the consequences of failure will be catastrophic.
The clear need is for the quality of national cooperation we lift to in other emergencies. Not politics that fans resentments, amplifies doubts and makes people more anxious in an already anxious time.
It’s hard to know what else to do that will bring reality to our political discourse.
We just have to persist … An actor friend who is also an expert on Dante, decided this week to sow a simple message on Khadni silk and stand outside central city train stations, like Flinders St. in Melbourne.
His silk banner simply says: ‘Thank you for taking the train.’
There is a symmetry of purpose which unites a student of Dante outside a train station; folk helping Riverina lands recover and adapt; the young scientists and researchers pouring their lives into this transition and the remembering of a man who cherished the sounds of our frogs.
Today, November 1 is for many All Saints Day. In times of hate and fear, in times where the survival of planetary life depends on the decisions we make now, the best lives are those that respond with love.
