CLIMATE CHANGE ACCOUNTABILITY YOUNG FABIANS ENVIRONMENT NETWORK COP26 REPORT Revealing How to Improve Transparency, Assign Responsibility & Implement Science-Backed Solutions to Solve the Climate Crisis Foreword by Matthew Pennycook MP Edited by Jack Parker, Cecilia Jastrzembska & Laura Cunliffe-Hall © 2020 Young Fabians Climate Change Accountability First published September 2020. Launched at Labour Connected 2020. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior writ- ten permission of the publisher or editor, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law, where the source of information is acknowledged as this publication. 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To find out more about the Fabian Society, the Young Fabians, the Fabian Women’s Network and our local soci- eties, please visit our website at www.fabians.org.uk Published by: Young Fabians [email protected] www.youngfabians.org.uk Young Fabians 61 Petty France London, UK, SW1H 9EU CONTENTS Foreword 2 Executive Summary 3 Climate Change: International Accountability and Multilateral Reform 4 Improving Education & Transparency Around the Climate Crisis 11 The United Nations Should Commit to 1.5ºC 16 Strengthening Scientific Advisory Bodies & Communication to Put COP26 Back on Track 19 Fairly Assigning Responsibility Based on Historical Impact 22 Aligning Responsibility with Consumption 24 Climate Migrants: Gaining International Commitment to Share Costs & Adapt 27 Open-Source Solutions to Fight Deforestation 31 The Rise of Eco-Fascism: The Environmental Case for Taking a Tougher Stance Against Online Hate 36 1 MATTHEW PENNYCOOK MP FOREWORD ext November’s COP26 UN a particular responsibility and ca- COP26 Presidency also rests on Nclimate change conference in pacity to ensure COP26 is a suc- the Government’s actions abroad. Glasgow will be a critical moment cess. Failure is something that our That is why Ministers must act to in the fight against runaway glob- planet cannot afford. ensure the UK’s actions abroad are compatible with its obligations un- al heating. It is therefore imperative that the der the Paris Agreement, starting The summit will be the first test Government establishes the cred- with an immediate end to the use of the provisions of the landmark ibility of the UK’s COP26 Presiden- of public money to finance new 2015 Paris Agreement designed fossil fuel projects overseas and to see signatories ratchet up a greater focus on support for the their climate ambitions every five poorest and most vulnerable na- years in order to limit the rise in tions least responsible for climate the global temperature to “well breakdown and most exposed to below” 2°C and achieve global its effects. net zero emissions in the second half of this century. At present, the gulf between the Government’s rhetoric on climate Current commitments are leading action and the reality is vast. Min- the world down a path to over 3°C isters must use the next fourteen of heating, so the overriding goal cy now. That must begin here at months to prove to the world that of the summit must be to convince home with much more ambitious the UK is doing everything it pos- all participants to significantly raise action to rapidly decarbonise our sibly can to secure a successful their ambitions when it comes to economy this year, alongside the COP26. their domestic targets for reducing publication of a Nationally Deter- greenhouse gas emissions. We all have a stake in securing that mined Contribution based on a success, especially given the UN’s Yet success or failure in that re- significantly enhanced 2030 emis- Intergovernmental Panel on Cli- gard is something that is likely to sions reduction target. mate Change 2018 warning that, in be determined in capitals around The need to rebuild our economy the response to the climate crisis, the world long before delegates in the wake of the coronavirus pan- the next few years are “probably arrive in Glasgow in November demic offers a once-in-a-genera- the most important in our history”. 2021. That means that leadership tion opportunity to advance that That is why this collection of es- needs to be demonstrated well in effort and it is imperative that the says, addressing a wide range of advance of the summit to generate Government does not let the pres- issues that will influence the out- the necessary momentum. ent opportunity to enact an ambi- come in Glasgow, is so timely and As the summit’s host, but also tious green stimulus package slip so necessary. as the first country in the world through its fingers. to industrialise and the world’s In addition to greater ambition at sixth-largest economy, the UK has home, the credibility of the UK’s Matthew Pennycook Labour MP for Greenwich and Woolwich Shadow Minister for Climate Change 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY By Jack Parker, Lead Editor oronavirus has reinforced the we should press ahead regardless forestation. We tackle all of these reality that our economy is re- with the writing and publication of issues in these pages. C this report. Climate change is no liant upon the normal functioning I want to thank all of the contribu- less urgent, and so our response of society, and likewise society is tors that made this report possible, should be no less proactive and dependent upon the stability of especially to Cecilia Jastrzembska Much ambitious as before. the natural environment. and Laura Cunliffe-Hall for their like a pebble balanced on a stone, While the contributions in this re- support in editing. in turn balanced on a boulder, the port are broad and diverse, they products and services we take for While this report cannot offer a all focus around policies and ideas granted on a day to day basis are comprehensive list of solutions, that can help drive global account- in fact vulnerable to small shifts our hope is that these ideas be- ability and enable science-based in the environment on which we come part of the narrative and crit- action on an international level to have built everything around us. ical thinking which is desperate- solve the climate crisis. If coronavirus was a small shift of ly needed ahead of COP26 next the boulder, then climate change This includes greater transparency year. I encourage you to read and threatens to be a major earth- and education, strengthening the share these ideas, to debate and quake, threatening much more sig- role of scientific advisors to tackle improve them, and to lobby poli- nificant disruption to society and fake news and misinformation. It ticians and decision makers over the economy. includes greater awareness of the the coming year. We must lever- historical contributions of Western age the opportunity of COP26 to This report was initially intended to nations and today’s sharing of re- set our economy and society on a be published ahead of the COP26 sponsibility based on consump- new, sustainable track, and to pro- meeting in Glasgow, originally tion, not just domestic production. tect the things that coronavirus has scheduled for late 2020. Despite This also involves global coopera- taught us to value more than ever. the UN’s flagship meeting being tion to ease the pain of climate-re- postponed to November 2021, lated migration and to prevent de- the Young Fabians decided that Author: Executive Summary, Lead Editor, Jack Parker Fabian Involvement: Young Fabians Environment Network Chair Bio: Jack is the Managing Director of Construction at Hanson Wade, a role from which he hosts international conferences covering architecture, building methods and performance. He graduated with a Masters in Civil & Environmental Engineering from Cardiff University, where he also discovered the critical role of politics in transitioning society to a more sustainable future. 3 CLIMATE CHANGE: INTERNATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND MULTILATERAL REFORM By Cecilia Jastrzembska, Co-Editor ‘Now more than ever, we need to reinvigorate our pursuit of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, invest in green transitions, and maintain diplomatic momentum to push for low carbon economies’ n an ever more internally fo- are dying from climate change1. ment found that “nearly one quar- Icussed, nationalistic and individ- Meanwhile, food security and safe ter of all deaths globally in 2012 ualist world, the challenge to find drinking water have been compro- could be attributed to modifiable global solutions is greater than mised, conflict has increased, and environmental risks, with a dispro- ever. The COVID-19 crisis is but a extreme weather events and en- portionately high amount occurring drop in a rapidly acidifying ocean suing epidemics have killed hun- in populations in developing coun- compared to the ramifications we dreds of thousands.For one exam- tries”.3 This makes climate change will face if we fail to make use of the ple, witness the cholera outbreak a human rights issue; from a legal crucial narrowing window we have which followed Cyclone Idai in Mo- perspective, “a right to a healthy to mitigate the deleterious effects zambique in 2019.