Report from COP 24 Climate Conference in Katowice, Poland

By Bruce Knotts

Photo of display panel at COP24 Katowice UN Climate Change Conference Poland 2018

Representative from Poland gives remarks at COP24

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December 12, 2018

This has been a difficult COP (Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) to attend. Just before the conference there was an IPCC (Intergovernmental Report on Climate Change) report which stated that the Paris goal of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius was insufficient to protect the planet and that we needed to keep global warming to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius. This report has been rejected by the United States, Saudi Arabia and Russia, the three largest producers of oil.

As Al Gore said today, they care more for their bottom line than the future of the planet. It is probably the most unethical decision ever made in the history of the world. Knowing what we know, the vast majority of the world is doing all it can to mitigate climate change using various methods such as burying carbon dioxide underground as Norway has been doing over the past 20 years, to moving quickly to power generation and storage that is completely free of fossil fuels. All of this is within our grasp and much of the development of these new technologies are able to switch the globe from fossil fuel power to clean energy: solar, wind, etc. However, those nations and companies which have vested interests in perpetuating the planet-killing use of fossil fuels which continue to enjoy tax-payer subsides in the United States won’t forego their profits even at the expense of the future of the planet and future generations.

Al Gore stands before an image of various environmental hazards at COP24 climate change conference in Poland.

"We’re burning a football field size of forest every second." -Al Gore at COP24

Multilateral action on climate change, as Al Gore said today, is the single most important moral decision of our time. We either move quickly to address this existential threat of climate change or we consign the planet and all life on the planet to a living hell on earth (in the words of Al Gore this morning). The science is clear to all. Only a handful of nations with vested interests in gaining just a few more years of profits from fossil fuels chose to deny what the rest of the world accepts.

Climate action is on the rise, but in the words of the president of COP 24, the action isn’t happening with the speed nor the scale to avoid great catastrophe. This sentiment has been echoed by children, trade union representatives, representatives of indigenous peoples, business representatives and nearly every national representative at COP 24. The task is urgent, and it needs maximum effort to avoid ever greater droughts, forest fires, hurricanes, and more. The lungs of the earth are our forests and we are losing our forests due to human destruction of forests on the scale of a football field size of forest every second, according to Al Gore. If we want air to breath, we need to protect our forests. The keepers of our forests and water are the indigenous peoples of the planet. We need desperately to learn from them how to live more gently on our planet.

Today, I spoke at a interfaith press conference and talked about the UUA’s 2011 Ethical Eating resolution. I said that:

As Al Gore pointed out this morning, Animal agriculture puts a heavy strain on many of the Earth's finite land, water, and energy resources. In order to accommodate the 70 billion animals raised annually for human consumption (note there are about 7.5 billion people, most of whom can't afford to eat much meat), a third of the planet's ice-free land surface, as well as nearly sixteen percent of global freshwater, is devoted to growing livestock. Furthermore, a third of worldwide grain production is used to feed livestock. Cattle are by far the biggest source of emissions from animal agriculture, with one recent study showing that in an average American diet, beef consumption creates 1,984 pounds of CO2e annually. Replacing beef with plants would reduce that figure by 96 percent, bringing it down to just 73 pounds of CO2e.

In 2011, the Unitarian Universalist Association adopted an Ethical Eating resolution which calls for us all to adopt a plant-based diet as much as possible to address the inordinate impact meat production imposes on the climate and to ensure food equity. If we didn't devote a third of our grain production to raising livestock, we could feed every person on the planet. We also recommend that you eat locally grown food and to be mindful of the carbon footprint of transporting your food long distances to get it to your table.

We are here to ensure the world takes the right actions to preserve our planet. However, it is already clear that the world's politicians will fall far short of the mark, so it is up to us, people of faith to take those actions which can preserve the planet. In addition to the Unitarian Universalist Association's Ethical Eating recommendations, we also have a green sanctuary program to ensure that our places of worship are as fully powered by clean sustainable sources of energy as possible. It is not enough for us to preach, we must show our faith by what we do.

It will take the maximum efforts of us all to deal with this existential threat to the life of our planet and all the beautiful life that abides here.

There is only one way to tackle this problem and that is multilateral global action coordinated by the United Nations. No one nation can do this. No group of nations can achieve the goals necessary to save our planet. It will take the concerted effort of all of us acting in concert under United Nations convening authority to deal with this and other such global issues, such as disarmament, global migration, global health, and most of all climate change.

Bruce Knotts and Doris Marlin in an assembly hall at COP24 climate conference in Katowice

UUA representatives Bruce Knotts and Doris Marlin at COP24 in Katowice, Poland.

About the Author

Bruce Knotts

Bruce Knotts is the Director of the Unitarian Universalist Office at the United Nations. He was born and raised in Southern California. He got his Bachelor’s Degree in History from Pepperdine University and his Master’s Degree in International Education from the Monterey Institute of...

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