Climate failure
The summit on climate changes came and went. The adopted agreement is that the temperatures are not supposed to rise above 2 °C with the 1.5 °C as the best effort in the second half of the century. A victory against the growing trends of biodiversity loss and destroying the ecosystem. The nation leaders hold hands and smile for the cameras. Considering the trends today, the goal is impossible to achieve yet we must try. Of course, the agreement is not legally binding if the countries choose not to ratify it or not act upon that ratification. But let's eliminate the noise here.
Is the text truly good? Sadly, no. We're left with the pretense of victory and hope for the future where there is none. The text everyone agrees on left no roadmap, concrete goals and date to which it must be implemented. To make matters worse, the island nations like the Seychelles claim that their economy will be destroyed regardless. Nobody talks about repairing the damage that has already been done. In fact, the liabilities were not a part of the text. “The idea of even discussing loss and damage now or in the future was off limits. The Americans told us it would kill the COP,” said Leisha Beardmore, the chief negotiator for the Seychelles. “They have always been telling us: ‘Don’t even say that’.”
I am afraid that we will just see more greenwashing and little to no results. The adoption doesn't ask for any responsibility to be acknowledged for the future failures at all. It was just a great pat on the back between nation leaders. After the circle jerk they had on the summit, we're supposed to believe that this time will be different. Just remember that the Kyoto ultimately failed because the emissions of the greenhouse gases were not lowered in the world. They were increased. We are hitting the 1 °C average temperature increase since the pre-industrial age right about now. The deal is setting itself up for a failure and a pledge is just a pledge, a fool's comfort.
James Hansen says that as long as we burn fossil fuels because they are a cheap commodity, this situation is not going anywhere. To reinforce this, the price of a barrel of oil has hit the lowest in seven years and is about 36$ per barrel. It hasn't been long since the end of the summit that India said that the adoption doesn't change the fact that they will double their coal usage till 2020. The summit was a big vacation for the politicians and nothing has been reached so don't fool yourselves. The change should still come from within ourselves first because no dice if we as people don't act on it.