The following resolution was passed at the People Before Profit AGM in May 2022.
Resolution 23: Resolution on Climate & Biodiversity
Resolution on Climate.
The climate crises and biodiversity are accelerating in real time, with temperatures, extreme weather events, floods droughts etc exceeding all previous records and coming with increased frequency and intensity alongside news of wildlife population numbers in rapid decline and increased rates of species extinction. Far from the IPCC reports or indeed the regular peer reviewed science studies been overly alarmist or “catastrophist”, its increasingly clear they have been moderate and if anything have under estimated the scale and speed of the unfolding disaster.
What this means globally is graphically illustrated in the heat wave in India and Pakistan.
The last of the three parts of the most recent IPCC report also shows us the major problem with the response to date of capitalism and the worlds Governments. In the technical reports section of the IPCCs 7th AR ( Assessment report) there is no ambiguity or vagueness. The world has utterly failed to heed all previous warnings, Co2 emissions have increased to record levels, the ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere have accumulated to levels (at 420ppm now) never seen in human history or indeed in millions of years, and yet on current trajectory the world will hit 3 to 5 degrees of warming by 2100. Indeed , even if all of the countries planned emission cuts and strategies were implemented. It would still see temperature rises of almost 3 degrees.
None of this was accidental and points to why climate , even in the midst of war and pandemics is a crisis that will dominate politics and what we do in the coming decades; capitalism is incapable of averting the disaster that is happening now or responding to avoid ever worst outcomes in the coming decades.
There is no evidence that emissions will “peak” in 2025 or 2030. Indeed the hopes for 1.5 are been gently abandoned by the scientific community and the report talks of the best case scenario now been a short, temporary ”overshoot” of 1.5 before the world wrestles it down in the 2040s and so on. In Ireland (as globally) Governments talk of Net Zero by 2050 as their lofty ambition; what this means is essentially manana manana; action by some time in the future. This is nonsense, and will mean a death sentence for huge sways of the planet’s human, animal and plant life within our lifetimes.
Even though the IPCC reports warns frantically against placing any hopes in new technology such as Carbon Capture and Storage that is precisely what all capitalists Governments have build into their projections and strategies. They hope/plan that someone, at some stage will invent something that will allow societies to remove the carbon that the major fossil fuel companies intend to continue to extract and emit. That is not happening and will not happen.
This reliance on CCS and new tech hints at a deeper and unresolvable problem. Along with the reliance on general “market mechanisms” and private company’s investing in renewables or in other bizarre geo engineering projects, it tells us that capitalism will do everything bar what is needed; reduce emission and use of fossil fuels. It is , for capitalism, easier to imagine a world where we erect giant sun shades in space or shoot poisonous sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere than it is to imagine stopping oil , gas or coal use.
In Ireland the twin failed responses to this crisis (reliance on market mechanisms and future tech) are crystal clear within many mainstream NGOs and the Green Party in Government.
In capable of understanding what is driving the crisis or how to respond the Greens have recently declared that we need more Data centres in order to encourage private investment in off shore wind, and that we may need a state developed LNG to respond to Russian aggression and energy security threats. Both issues simply confirm that when faced with pressure by the state, vested interests or the bourgeoise the greens and various lobby groups will capitulate and accept the arguments regardless of how insane they actually are or even how removed they are from what the science is telling us.
It is likely that continued data centre expansion, the campaign for one or two LNGs , and the willingness to hand over the country’s renewable resources to private companies will become the centre round of climate battles in the years and months ahead.
But these headline battles are only one part of this story and we need as a party to see climate change and campaigns around this as central to everything we do and argue in the coming period. Our base and support in urban working class communities and within sections of the organised working class is absolutely central to how the fight against climate change can be advanced. The truth is the Green party but also many of the more genuine radical middle-class activist concerned with climate seem incapable of relating this fight to poorer rural and urban working class communities.
Their embrace of carbon taxes (along with the Social Democrats and Labour), the emphasis on personal behavioural changes and moralistic tones alienate workers and breed cynicism on wider environmental issues. This is picked up and used by the right and climate deniers
This is why the role of an explicitly ecosocialist party is so important. Left to the mainstream NGOs, Greens and other social democratic forces, there will be no alternative offered which accepts the science and fact of the climate crisis but understands that capitalism is the root cause of it and that its logic and its driving forces must be challenged to avert disaster.
That means defending working class communities from carbon taxes, and lectures on personal behaviour, while also demanding that the wealth and resources of society are marshalled to meet the climate challenge. The key demands here for us are;
- free and frequent public transport,
- mass retrofitting schemes paid up front by the state,
- a state company to develop renewable and especially off shore renewable energy and in the immediate period ;
- an end to data centre expansion and total opposition to any expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure such as LNGs.
- End industrialised agriculture based on monocultures – pay farmers to shift to organic regenerative farming practices and rewilding with increased incomes for small and medium farmers
In the coming period there will be many other issues which the crisis throw up, such as the response to climate refugees, what a Just Transition means in practice, what specific technologies we should support or advocate for , and what actions should we back by campaigners etc etc. In all the ecos-socialist left will often hold positions that are unique because of our understanding of the crisis. We endeavour to find party members or other experts who can prepare briefing documents with strong scientific arguments against the current neoliberal approach while also suggesting concrete alternatives so we can confidently argue for real positive change when interacting with people, producing press releases or during interviews.”
While it is true that ultimately for us, it is difficult to see how averting utter catastrophic climate change can happen within a capitalist system, this doesn’t stop us from fighting and leading immediate campaigns in the immediate period. Climate is no longer a issue for middle class professionals or Greens; it is a class issue and many working class activists are also alarmed and worried about what is happening. In the coming period these campaigns should not be seen as something separate from the bread and butter issues we fight in our communities but as embedded in everything we do; free public transport is a climate demand but also a demand for greater connectivity in our communities and a response to the cost of living crisis . Campaigns for a state led renewable energy company is a climate demand, but also one which kicks against neoliberal dogma and highlights how privatisation of energy supply and profiteering are behind the current crisis as much as war and Putin’s imperialism. Mass Retro fitting schemes administered and carried out by a state company with workers on good pay and unionised conditions is a climate demand but also kicks against neoliberal dogma . All these demands can rally workers behind climate demands while also making sense to growing numbers of climate activists.
In the coming period therefore, People Before Profit should;
- Campaign for Free public transport as a climate and social justice policy
- Support campaigns against continued data centre and LNG expansion
- Oppose the reliance on market mechanisms and carbo capture technology when used as a substitutes for cutting fossil fuel use here and now
- Advance a new vision of co-operative agriculture that reaches out to farmers and rural communities with an alternative to the industrial capitalist model currently pushed by vested interests and the State
