Dave-Inder Comar

Reintroducing myself 🙌🏽 I’m a lawyer in private practice currently getting my PhD in international law with a focus on climate change impacts. My specific area of research looks at the self-determination of peoples in an era of planetary threats 🌍 🧵🪡

Imagine if wealthy economies were defossilizing as quickly as they were adopting AI. Imagine what could be possible!

UNEP's latest projections for warming this century remain close to 3°C. So this EU warning is consistent with UN projections. On the other hand, it's a gutting admission that this is as far as current policies will ever take us.

"People should accept life with the asteroid"

International lawyers and UN mechanisms have been working hard to think about sea-level rise and ensuring the continuity of statehood. Similar attention is needed for glacial loss, which will devastate the lives of billions.

For COP31 to be meaningful, the primary agenda item would be a hard dates related to defossilization of our economy. Of course, nothing prevents wealthy, high-emissions States from ending fossil fuel licenses at any time.

Estimates on emissions reductions need to be better illustrated for them to make sense to people. The 2020 pandemic measures reduced emissions about 6-7% that year (those reductions were lost once the measures ended). So, roughly, we need similar policies, implemented annually, to address warming.

To survive the coming centuries we will need to new forms of government, rooted in democracy, that can help us survive a hotter planet and implement a plan to return to some kind of climate stability. And which can manage and deflate the greed and corruption which destroyed a habitable world.

If a major world government were intent on invading and occupying the entire planet, we would recognize that as a blatant form of aggression. What do we call it when a major government is intent on transforming the planet into a far less hospitable place? [this is the focus of my scholarly work]

There is no stopping global warming with US cooperation. I think that's a plain, hard geophysical and geopolitical fact. Other governments need to soberly assess how to address a US that seems intent on exiting the Holocene as quickly as possible.

Europe has already transformed into a place with hot and brutal summers. These summers will get increasingly worse every year. It's a scary thing to acknowledge. The world is now different. We have to adapt, and figure out a real plan to stop the warming.

US oil companies are now eyeing Greenlandic resources for drilling and exploitation. The Arctic is transforming to a place without ice and oil companies see only further profits. Greed is the enemy of a habitable planet.

The problem with "overshoot" is now we are squarely risking the breach of a variety of climate tipping points. Nothing will change without some form of real accountability for government leaders who are risking thousands of years of planetary damage

I feel I'm pretty hardened at this point but the new UNEP report felt like a gut punch. 2.6°C even with all current pledges filled. This is a serious governance problem, even an existential one. There is no one at the wheel capable of averting a terrible crisis already starting.

1.7-1.8°C is 'best case' for limiting overshoot, requiring the removal of "roughly 320 gigatonnes of CO2 (equivalent to around eight years of 2024’s global CO2 emissions)" Unless someone can show me this kind of recapture plan, it is not accurate to call 1.8°C 'best case'

The Svalbard story, and how they can't drink the water, underscores the stunning environmental degradation in the Arctic from a warming planet. In a sane world, we would be rushing to keep the Arctic as cold and as human-free as possible. We would be rushing to stop the burning of fossil fuels.

From a policy perspective we should be acting as if this is a true planetary emergency. People in power lack the imagination, or have been too captured by status quo interests (including energy interests) to pivot. The fight for the climate is a fight for democracy as well

The scariest part about the Post-Holocene is that for too many of our current leaders, the destruction of a stable climate systems is simply an excuse to keep drilling in new places

We need regional treaties for exceptionally fragile climate areas like the Arctic. Imagine a world in which Arctic States cooperated environmental protection, emissions reductions, and keeping the Arctic cold. We need an entirely different approach to the Arctic, immediately.

The most important climate action we can be taking in high-emissions societies is to question everything -- what we consider 'success' -- the people we elect into power -- the history of our countries since 1492 This kind of self-reflection is the only real way we can truly address the crisis.

Great article about a recent "war game" related to solar geoengineering deployment.

Just finished Juice by Tim Winton. A harrowing, gripping read. Get a copy and read it.

The US Supreme Court will decide whether cities and States can seek compensation from oil companies for climate damages Much is at stake including: -- who bears the costs of climate (cities or oil companies) -- state vs federal regulatory power in relation to environmental harms

Australia is trying to coordinate regional climate efforts even as it refuses to dramatically reduce its own emissions and fossil fuel exploitation. This kind of climate hypocrisy—and it is truly hypocritical—is increasingly impossible to ignore.

Pacific Island governments are meeting now to coordinate on climate before the COP in November. Likely 'closed door' agenda items: -- continuity of statehood irrespective of sea level rise -- technology and financial transfers needed to retain sovereign equality -- ensuring resource sovereignty

Just completely outrageous and a form of cruel and inhuman punishment. The death penalty in the US is a dark well of human rights abuses.

I've been shocked that there isn't greater outcry over the sanctions against the International Criminal Court. Sanctioning international judges who are doing their job to enforce international law is an attack on Nuremberg. Directly relevant to international climate law in so many ways.

The science of planetary boundaries provides meaningful context for climate policy, and I look to both when thinking about global policy responses. What's missing today is any kind of meaningful global governance framework to maintain Holocene-like conditions and stay within those boundaries.

I think the hardest part about climate policy is getting people to viscerally understand how hot it's going to get. People have trouble comprehending that each year (gets hotter than the last more or less), and in 5, 10, 15, 30 years the levels of heat dramatically will change day-to-day life.

In my dissertation (almost done) I argue that international law must develop the idea of the "post-Holocene." The Holocene stability which supported the rise of States and a legal order is ending. When I read headlines like this I get quite sad about what we're losing

We are greatly underestimating the impacts of climate in the coming years, at least as a policy matter. Wealthy countries like Switzerland are not prepared. I think for many people in rich countries climate change is a "them" problem. Vulnerable countries like islands face existential risks soon.

These explainers are so good ⭐️

Genuine climate solutions remain possible in the US Cities and States could become groundbreaking laboratories for economic and political change. Imagine a powerhouse like NY or CA ending fossil fuel subsidies, defossilizing, providing clean energy jobs, and implementing adaptation measures.

It saddens me how much the US has walked away from climate. And how silent both culture and politics have become on addressing global warming. We need a major political program that can connect the dots on cost of living, climate, and endless war. And which can connect to human rights protections

A just transition to stop warming will require dramatic changes to the way we live in high-emissions societies. This transition is a cultural and political project. We'll probably work much less, eat less meat on average, and have far more free time. More spending on health and education.

Amnesty International calls for ICE to be abolished

I wish rule-of-law scholars would focus more on the US Supreme Court. Its hyper political nature, lack of accountability mechanisms, and lifetime appointments all reflect a judicial body that sits well outside accepted rule-of-law norms. This is a major component of the democratic crisis in the US

Small island States have championed the concept that they are entitled to their statehood and resource entitlements even in the face of sea-level rise this century. These efforts have been successful. They do not stop the crisis, but they support their self-determination grist.org/internationa...

The UN Special Rapporteur on climate change and human rights is seeking input from scientists and other experts on which technologies should be prioritized in stopping warming/ I encourage experts to supply input, which will then go into a formal UN report. 30 Sept www.ohchr.org/en/calls-for...

This El Niño will devastate the lives of millions. And it's just the beginning. Like the coronavirus pandemic, few people take the effort to truly think through non-linear impacts. Aggressive measures today are the only way to prevent catastrophe in 10 years. 2°C by mid century is a catastrophe.

I have mixed feelings about treating climate policy as "national security". National security is the bucket that seems to get the most policy dollars. But climate change is so many other things—a human rights crisis, a cost of living crisis, a health crisis. Also a democracy crisis.

Behind closed doors even the climate-denying Trump government knows what's coming. The fact that governments know, but refuse to prepare our societies—much less stop burning fossil fuels—is what is criminal in my view, not to mention repugnant.

Interfering with the proper administration of justice is itself a criminal offense under the Rome Statute.