Livestock generate about 32% of anthropogenic, or human-generated, methane, mainly from the planet’s billion-plus cattle. Climate scientists have warned that methane is playing an ever greater role in global heating. Cutting methane emissions, it has been said, is the strongest lever we have to slow climate heating over the next 25 years.

Failure to take action on methane emissions by the world’s biggest meat and dairy companies is fuelling the climate crisis, say campaigners.

The new ranking, published today, names the three worst-performing meat and dairy corporations as two French companies – Groupe Bigard and Lactalis – and the Japanese company Itoham. The ranking was based on an examination of the companies’ climate targets “to see if they had any methane action plans or reporting and to see what research they were doing”, said Nuša Urbancic of Changing Markets Foundation, the ranking’s co-author.  Urbancic added that meat and dairy corporations were being “given a free pass by governments”.

Even companies that ranked best – Switzerland’s Nestlé, France’s Danone and New Zealand’s Fonterra – were doing too little, said the report. 

 For example, none of the 20 companies, which together represent the “vast majority” of livestock sector emissions, have concrete methane reduction targets, it said. The company closest to having a methane action plan, the ranking found, was Nestlé, although it failed to “include any milestones or key performance indicators”.

Although more than half the ranked companies were undertaking research into methane reduction, mainly via methane-reducing feed, the report said none appeared to be contemplating lowering animal numbers or replacing animals with other protein sources.

New Zealand is the only country to pass legislation to cut greenhouse gases from livestock, but with farming emissions still rising, the government has been advised cow numbers will need to be cut to meet targets.

Meat and dairy giants feed climate crisis by dragging their heels on methane | Meat industry | The Guardian

Every 17 hours a billionaire is created, and every 17 hours 17,000 people die from hunger.

World Food Programme executive director, David Beasley, is calling upon U.S. billionaires to give just 0.36% of the increase in their collective wealth since the start of the pandemic to help prevent 42 million people from starving to death.

“Billionaires need to step up,” he said, with a one-time donation of “six billion dollars to help 42 million people that are literally going to die if we don’t reach them.” Beasley said governments are “tapped out” and that addressing the hunger crisis was especially critical amid “a perfect storm of conflict, climate change, and Covid.”

“It’s not complicated,” said Beasley. “All I’m asking for is .36% of your net worth increase. I’m for people making money, but, God knows, also for you helping people who are in great need right now. The world is in trouble… and you’re telling me you can’t give me .36% of your net worth increase?”

“What if it was your daughter starving to death?” Beasley asked. “What if it was your family starving to death?”

“I am not opposed to anyone making money, but I AM opposed to people dying of hunger when there’s $400 trillion of wealth in the world today.”

In an earlier statement Beasley warned that the climate emergency stands to worsen an already grim scenario of global food insecurity.

“The climate crisis has the potential to overwhelm humanity. The world is not prepared for the unprecedented rise in hunger we will see if we do not invest in programs that help vulnerable communities adapt and build resilience to our changing climate,” adding that “the climate crisis is fueling a food crisis.”

WFP Chief: Billionaires Should Donate Mere 0.36% of Pandemic Profits to Feed 42 Million Starving People (commondreams.org)

Should the world be beseeching and begging billionaires to end hunger? 

Should the world be depending upon the billionaires’ largesse and philanthropy?

Experts estimate that some 18 million people in Bangladesh will be forced to move by rising sea levels by 2050.  

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman presented a series of plans to address the dangers of global warming.

But critics say the moves are just a smokescreen to keep fossil fuels propelling its economy. Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil producer, announced it planned to raise crude production from 12 million barrels a day to 13 million barrels by 2027 – a move scientists, energy experts say goes against what is needed to stave off the most catastrophic effects of climate change.

Saudi Arabia has justified the contradictory moves of reducing its own carbon emissions while still taking oil out of the ground and selling it worldwide as part of a plan to create a “circular carbon economy“. This envisions continuing to extract carbon-filled fuel out of the earth while employing new technologies to capture, store or sell its emissions – essentially an offset scheme.

 Critics have accused the Saudis of “greenwashing” – or claiming something is good for the environment when in reality the opposite is true.

Matthew Archer, a researcher at the Graduate Institute Geneva, explained, “It’s absurd to think that an economy based on the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels can be ‘circular’ in any meaningful sense of the word. The only way it works is if you rely on technologies that don’t exist yet,” said Archer. “These initiatives are … full of language that’s as ambitious as it is ambiguous, with very few concrete plans and no accountability mechanisms.” 

Archer said, the only way to rapidly decarbonise to avert catastrophic consequences of global warming is to ban new fossil fuel developments and invest massively in renewable energy and public infrastructure projects. “Anything short of that isn’t just greenwashing, it’s dangerous and delusional.”

‘Dangerous and delusional’: Critics denounce Saudi climate plan | Climate Crisis News | Al Jazeera

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman presented a series of plans to address the dangers of global warming.

But critics say the moves are just a smokescreen to keep fossil fuels propelling its economy. Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil producer, announced it planned to raise crude production from 12 million barrels a day to 13 million barrels by 2027 – a move scientists, energy experts say goes against what is needed to stave off the most catastrophic effects of climate change.

Saudi Arabia has justified the contradictory moves of reducing its own carbon emissions while still taking oil out of the ground and selling it worldwide as part of a plan to create a “circular carbon economy“. This envisions continuing to extract carbon-filled fuel out of the earth while employing new technologies to capture, store or sell its emissions – essentially an offset scheme.

 Critics have accused the Saudis of “greenwashing” – or claiming something is good for the environment when in reality the opposite is true.

Matthew Archer, a researcher at the Graduate Institute Geneva, explained, “It’s absurd to think that an economy based on the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels can be ‘circular’ in any meaningful sense of the word. The only way it works is if you rely on technologies that don’t exist yet,” said Archer. “These initiatives are … full of language that’s as ambitious as it is ambiguous, with very few concrete plans and no accountability mechanisms.” 

Archer said, the only way to rapidly decarbonise to avert catastrophic consequences of global warming is to ban new fossil fuel developments and invest massively in renewable energy and public infrastructure projects. “Anything short of that isn’t just greenwashing, it’s dangerous and delusional.”

‘Dangerous and delusional’: Critics denounce Saudi climate plan | Climate Crisis News | Al Jazeera

 Jubilee Debt Campaign, a leading anti-poverty charity, show that 34 of the world’s poorest countries are spending $29.4bn (£21.4bn) on debt payments a year compared with $5.4bn (£3.9bn) on measures to reduce the impact of the climate emergency.

Uganda had said it would spend $537m between 2016 and 2020, including funds from international agencies and donors, on climate-related projects to adapt the country’s infrastructure and deal with climate emergencies. However, the $107.4m annual budget is dwarfed by external debt payments which will total $739m in 2021, rising to $1.35bn in 2025.

Ausi Kibowa, from the Southern and Eastern Africa Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI), based in Uganda, said: “Owing to the immense financial pressure on Uganda from the debt crisis, the Ugandan government is unable to spend what is need to protect people from the damage inflicted by climate change. Furthermore, it is intensifying fossil fuel extraction in order to pay the debt. To address climate injustice, debt relief must be part of the forthcoming UN climate talks.”

Heidi Chow, executive director of Jubilee Debt Campaign, said, “Lower income countries are handing over billions of dollars in debt repayments to rich countries, banks and international financial institutions at a time when resources are desperately needed to fight the climate crisis,” she said.“In Glasgow, wealthy polluting nations need to stop shirking  their responsibilities and provide climate finance through grants, as well as cancel debts.”

International bodies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have encouraged developing world countries to fund development projects using bank loans and bonds. Borrowers expect interest rates to fall over time as they became trusted to make regular repayments. But low income countries still regularly pay more than 10% interest on loans compared to an average 1.5 to 2.5% paid by rich countries.

Poorer countries spend five times more on debt than climate crisis – report | Climate crisis | The Guardian

Greenhouse gas concentrations hit a record last year and the world is “way off track” in capping rising temperatures, the United Nations said. 

A report by the U.N. World Meteorological Organization (WMO) showed carbon dioxide levels surged to 413.2 parts per million in 2020, rising more than the average rate over the last decade despite a temporary dip in emissions during COVID-19 lockdowns.

WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said the current rate of increase in heat-trapping gases would result in temperature rises “far in excess” of the 2015 Paris Agreement target of 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average this century.

“We are way off track,” he said. “We need to revisit our industrial, energy and transport systems and whole way of life,” he added, calling for a “dramatic increase” in commitments.

Under countries’ current pledges, global emissions would be 16% higher in 2030 than they were in 2010, according to a separate analysis by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

That is far off the 45% reduction by 2030 that scientists say is needed to cap warming at 1.5 degrees and avoid its most devastating impacts. A “business-as-usual” trajectory leading to temperature rises of 1.6C, 2.4C and 4.4C by 2030, 2050 and 2100 respectively would result in 2.4% lost output by 2030, 10% by 2050 and 18% by 2100, according to the median replies to the survey.

World ‘way off track’ in halting warming, UN warns ahead of COP26 (trust.org)

 Rich countries agreed in 2009 that at least $100bn a year would be provided annually from public and private sector sources to the developing world by 2020, in order to help poor countries cut greenhouse gas emissions and cope with the impacts of the climate crisis. That target has so far gone unmet. 

Experts said it was “shameful” that developed countries were not doing more to help the poorest in the world, who were struggling with a climate crisis not of their making.

The climate finance delivery plan published found that a shortfall remained between the finance likely to be provided this year and next year and the $100bn (£73bn) target, but that it would be closed by 2023 when new contributions that had already been pledged came into effect. By 2025, according to the plan, the amount flowing to developing countries should reach $117bn.

No new money is likely to be forthcoming immediately under the delivery plan.

Climate finance for poor countries to hit $100bn target by 2023, says report | Cop26 | The Guardian

Australia has now belatedly pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Greta Thunberg has announced she will be taking part in climate protests in Glasgow next week, also inviting Glasgow workers who plan on striking to join her in the march.

She confirmed she would be in Glasgow during Cop26 to take part in the protests on Friday, 5 November. The protest, arranged by Fridays for Future Scotland a group inspired by Thunberg’s activism, will march at 11am from Kelvingrove Park in the west end of Glasgow to George Square in the city centre.

Thunberg invited thousands of striking street cleaners, railway and refuse staff to join the climate protests. The Swedish activist appeared to support the workers’ strike in her invitation. Around 1,500 Glasgow City Council staff in refuse, cleaning and catering roles are set to strike in the opening week of Cop26 over a pay dispute.

She wrote: “Climate justice also means social justice and that we leave no one behind. So we invite everyone, especially the workers striking in Glasgow, to join us. See you there! #UprootTheSystem.”

Greta Thunberg to march at Glasgow climate strike during Cop26 | The Independent