IPCC climate assessment shows urgent need for climate action

INDIANAPOLIS, IND. — Today the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest major assessment underscoring the urgent need for governments to act on climate change, and the unthinkable consequences if we don’t.

The IPCC’s scientific findings will inform its next major climate report, currently expected in 2022.

In response, Wendy Bredhold, senior campaign representative for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign in Indiana, released the following statement:

 “The world is on fire. We see the undeniable, nightmarish consequences of burning fossil fuels all around us, and time is growing short to act. As the third-ranked state in the U.S. in terms of carbon pollution from electricity generation, Indiana is critical to building climate solutions. 

 “This IPCC report is a call to action to all of us, and needs to be heard especially by those in the most powerful positions to respond: the decision-makers at Indiana’s monopoly electric utilities and in the government that regulates them. This moment requires utilities—and Duke Energy in particular, as the worst polluter—to retire their coal plants within this decade and replace them with energy efficiency, wind, solar and storage. 

 “Some of Indiana’s investor-owned utilities are making progress away from fossil fuels to renewable energy, but almost all of the benefit has been for the utilities. This moment requires Gov. Holcomb and the legislature to stop passing laws that further enrich and entrench monopoly utilities at the expense of everyday Hoosiers struggling through a pandemic to stay afloat. They must craft policies that support an equitable energy transition—one that benefits the Indiana communities that have been most harmed by fossil fuel plants and infrastructure. It’s time to get to work for the people.”