Key issues for climate change

How can the world go fossil-free within just a few decades? What are the key issues that need to be resolved in order to effectively tackle climate change?

In recent years, a growing body of evidence is suggesting that the threat of climate change is even more serious than suggested by the latest assessment report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It is becoming increasingly urgent to switch to a path that makes it possible to minimise the risks to human well-being and ecosystems, and to avoid catastrophic global warming.

At the same time, the world is facing an equally serious development crisis. One billion people do not have enough to eat, and 1,6 billion lack any access to modern energy services. The gaps between the rich and the poor are widening, which also increases the risk of violent conflict.
Addressing the development crisis will require a more equitable distribution of resources, including improved access to energy by the poor. At the same time, the climate crisis makes it necessary to dramatically reduce the use of fossil fuels, to change the unsustainable consumption patterns of the rich, and to embark on a structural transformation of societies and energy systems.

The need for leadership

To simultaneously address the crises of development and climate will require new approaches and visions. It will be costly, and will need a strong political commitment.  But it also holds opportunities for synergies and new solutions.
In all the areas that are central to the climate negotiations – common visions and goals, limiting and reducing emissions in the North and the South, adapting to the effects of climate change and support to the most affected, the role of forests and land use changes, financing, transfer of technology – there are key issues that need to be resolved.

Political courage and leadership are required to break the deadlock between the North and the South that are blocking progress in the negotiations. Constructive ideas and proposals that go far beyond what is currently being negotiated are necessary to inject a new dynamism in the negotiations, but more importantly because of the scale of the challenges that the climate crisis poses. Only a strong public opinion, civil society mobilization and active engagement will help push the policy-makers to bring about an agreement that corresponds with the reality of climate change, and that leads the way towards sustainable and equitable societies.

”Key Issues for Climate Change”

Under the lable “Key Issues for Climate Change” the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) has identified a number of themes and challenges that need to be better understood and tackled effectively through real action. These web pages provide our positions, views, background material and a variety of material and resurces.

They also provide extensive material from the seminar series that underpinned the “Key issues for Climate Change” project. These seminars gathered a wide range of experts, negotiators, representatives from international institutions, private sector representatives and civil society organisations from different parts of the world, with the aim to broaden the debate and look for both solutions and new challenges.

Through this series of seminars, SSNC has challenged both policy-makers and ourselves. The seminars present a wealth of ideas and perspectives where climate change and the challenges to development, equity and justice are seen as an integrated whole.