Last chance for survival

I keep reading that the ongoing COP26 is the last chance for earth’s survival. COP26 is the shorthand for the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change. This is the annual UN climate summit and this year it was attended by almost 200 countries in Glasgow, Scotland.

If this is really the last chance, then the planet is doomed. The goal of climate experts is that the rise of global temperature should be limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius. That is the threshold at which scientists say the world is likely to experience a range of catastrophes and irreversible tipping points that would transform the climate and life on earth as we know it. According to Alok Sharma, the UN official charged with leading  the conference, the goals of COP 26 can be broken down into “a handful of digestible objectives from advancing climate financing to slashing coal and growing the deployment of renewable energy….This is going to be a decisive decade…We need to get it right.”

So far the summit is not getting it right. Based on these observations, it looks like the world is headed for an eventual climate disaster.

Slashing coal was a primary objective of the summit. In the end the three biggest users of coal – China, United States and India – refused to sign the Coal Pact which tried to set timelines for the cessation of the building of coal-powered plants.

Coal is one of the dirtiest energy sources in use and coal plants still generate 38 percent of the world’s electricity. China is already the world’s biggest source of pollution. However, China is still planning to build more coal-powered plants which are really the cheapest sources of power. The United States will not sign the Coal Pact because of domestic politics. There are certain states like West Virginia whose local economy is still heavily dependent on coal. The Republican Party has made the possible banning of coal as a hot button political issue and certain powerful Democratic politicians like Senator Munchin from West Virginia are also strongly opposed to any ban. He and his son are also coal brokers and derive income from the coal industry.

Australia is the world’s biggest exporter of coal and, not surprisingly, this ban is one of the very few issues where Australia and China are on the same side.

According to a New York Times report, the world’s ten biggest polluters count for more than two-thirds of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. The world’s four biggest emitters – China, United States , European Union, India – are responsible for over half of global greenhouse gas output.

Climate financing has become a major global issue. There are calls for industrialized nations who are the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions which is heating up the planet to accept responsibility and to pay for the damage they have caused. This has become a major source of conflict between the rich countries, the biggest source of pollution, and the poor countries which are the biggest victims of global pollution.

The rich countries do not even want to officially use the term liability and compensation. Reparations is the actual term. However, the term being used by rich countries is “loss and damage.”

Nicola Sturgeon is the first head of a rich country to publicly acknowledge this responsibility. She announced that Scotland would devote two million pounds to address what she called “structural inequalities.” She called on rich countries to “start paying their debt to developing countries around the world. There is no longer any excuse for not doing so.”

At the ongoing summit, she said: “Finance is key to this, not as an act of charity but as an act of reparation.”

One area where there may be an agreement is to fight deforestation. At the COP26 there is an agreement to put an end to deforestation before the end of the decade. However, in 2014, there was also a global agreement to halve deforestation by 2020 and end it by 2030. This target was missed and the second target looks like it will have the same fate. However, it seems that there will be greater efforts this time.

Deforestation hotspots like Brazil and Indonesia have joined the pledge and rich countries have promised to contribute cash. According to an Economist report: “Slashing, burning or thinning forests or otherwise degrading ecosystems account for 11 percent of emissions. Standing forests by contrast serve as carbon sinks, breathing in a net 7.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year. These programs to plant and protect forests will be essential to meeting the goal to limit greenhouse gas emission and lower the world’s rise in temperature.”

In this war to save the earth there will be major forces at work to – believe it or not – impede any real effort. While climate activists were out in the streets, inside the COP26 the group with the largest delegation was the group that included the largest sources of emissions – the fossil fuels industry.

Whether in organized groups or alone, we must find ways to help save planet earth.

*      *      *

A Writing Date via Zoom: Young Writers’ Hangout: Nov. 20, 2-3 p.m. with poet & Ateneo professor D.M. Reyes.

Contact [email protected]. 0945.2273216

Email: [email protected]