Futile Hope for Paris

 Socialists have always been skeptical of the over-optimism of the politicians in regards to effective solutions to the climate crises and we have always questioned the over-confidence of the scientists in their hope that the politicians would follow their advice with accompanying legislation and regulation.  We were indeed the nay-sayers but unfortunately for all and for the planet, the socialists are proving to be correct. Too little is being done too late because it is the same old story, the interests of the capitalists and the corporations has to be primary. 

The commitments to reduce emissions that countries made at Paris were insufficient, and would result in catastrophic heating of more than 3C.

The world is still not on track to fulfil the 2015 Paris climate agreement, the UK’s business secretary Alok Sharma warned, after a summit of more than 70 world leaders on the climate crisis ended with few new commitments on greenhouse gas emissions.

Sharma said: “[People] will ask ‘Have we done enough to put the world on track to limit warming to 1.5C and protect people and nature from the effects of climate change?’ We must be honest with ourselves – the answer to that is currently no.”

More than 80 world leaders including China’s Xi Jinping, the European commission president Ursula von der Leyen, and Pope Francis urged swifter action on the climate crisis.  António Guterres, secretary-general of the UN, called on all world leaders to declare a state of climate emergency.

Guterres pointed out that many countries are also pouring money into high-carbon activities as they strive to recover from the coronavirus crisis, with G20 countries spending 50% more in stimulus packages on fossil fuels than low-carbon energy.

 “This is unacceptable,” he said. “The trillions of dollars needed for Covid recovery is money that we are borrowing from future generations. We cannot use these resources to lock in policies that burden future generations with a mountain of debt on a broken planet.”

Tim Gore, head of climate policy at Oxfam, said: “The Climate Ambition Summit lacked real ambition. World leaders must step up in the next 12 critical months to pull the world back from the brink of catastrophic climate change. Commitments to near-term emissions cuts are still insufficient to limit warming to the 1.5C Paris goal… We must not stumble from Covid-19 disaster into climate calaimity.”

Mohamed Adow, director of climate and energy thinktank Power Shift Africa, said,  More and more countries are setting net-zero emission dates. But it’s one thing to set a net-zero date for decades into the future and another thing to enact policies right now that will get us there."

Kat Kramer, climate policy lead at the charity Christian Aid, said: “Although we saw more than 70 world leaders making new commitments that still leaves many more that are yet to do so. It’s shameful that countries like Russia, Saudi Arabia and Australia have so far failed to come forward with new pledges and risk catastrophe for themselves and vulnerable communities around the world.”

World is in danger of missing Paris climate target, summit is warned | Climate change | The Guardian