As leaders from almost 200 countries met in Egypt this November for COP27, at least 30 media organizations in over 20 countries called for action on the worsening climate crisis.
There is nothing new on such calls for action. What would be new and exciting is if the developed countries actually kept their word to reverse the deadly destruction of mankind’s chronic abuse of the natural world that sustains us all.
Conference of the Parties (COP) is an annual 2-week meeting sponsored by the United Nations. COP has aimed to solve the climate crisis since its inception in 1995. The conference has often emerged with hopeful pledges for change made by affluent nations, which then have usually failed to deliver on their promises to cut emissions.
British newspaper The Guardian is one of the most vigilant of those media companies about revealing the egregious violators of human agreements. One such failing was the 2009 commitment from developed nations to contribute $100 billion a year to under-developed nations. As of last year, the payments were about $20 billion short.
The Guardian also reported that since COP26 last year in Glasgow, Scotland, countries have only promised to do one-50th(!) of what is necessary to hold world temperatures under a 2.7 degree Fahrenheit rise from pre-industrial levels. That’s the standard estimate that climate scientists say the damage could be irreversible.
How lop-sided is the issue of climate change? Rich countries comprise just 1/8 of the world’s people, yet account for one-half of the emissions causing the crisis. And the poorer countries bear the brunt of more climate catastrophes.
We need to get our heads around the enormity of the problem. The old pledge of $100 billion a year for mitigation is woefully inadequate. A report presented to COP27 advises that developing countries will need $2 TRILLION a year, about 20 times the current unmet goal.
The Natural Resources Defense Council outlined COP27’s themes in an October article:
Mitigation, adaptation, finance, collaboration.
Even if the 2.7 degree rise were prevented, an unlikely event, there are still calamitous consequences to come. We’re already seeing mass migrations of humans and mass extinctions of animals both resulting from lands becoming uninhabitable.
A switch from coal to clean renewables is urgent. As it is, coal emissions are 5 times the total from all the world’s motor vehicles.
Disproportionate climate impacts are hitting places like Bangladesh and small Pacific islands. Time is of the essence. Adaptation may be moot if an island or coastal city is drowned by rising seas.
Although there was not an exact formula to divvy up the payments that rich nations owed, financial records reveal that the United States has been tens of billions of dollars short of its share. That hasn’t stopped us from mansplaining about things others should be doing.
Collaboration should follow the realization that we all have common cause to protect the planet. Yet sadly, this hasn’t been sufficient to loosen the stranglehold that oil and coal industries have on the world’s energy. Their recent gas-gouging sent profits soaring to record levels. Customers complain, but don’t display much urgency to adopt alternatives like electric cars and public transportation.
The Democratic Republic of Congo hosted a pre-summit in October to firm up the resolve of the lesser developed nations. Congo’s Deputy Prime Minister Eve Bazaiba said, “Unless a global effort is made, no one will escape. We all breathe the same air.”
Frank Lingo, based in Lawrence, Kansas, is a former columnist for the Kansas City Star and author of the novel “Earth Vote.” Email: lingofrank@gmail.com. See his website: Greenbeat.world
From The Progressive Populist, December 15, 2022
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