What do climate summits and Republicans have in common? They are equally effective in mitigating a response to the negative impacts of climate change. It’s been the same song and dance at climate summits for the past 20 years now. Nothing but hype. A bunch of non-binding “political agreements” to reduce carbon emissions. A lack of accountability. A lack of serious action. A lack of sanctions for disregarding the non-binding agreements. Meanwhile, the planet continues to cook, the oceans continue to rise and acidify and climate-related disasters are increasing.
Yet our approach to the climate crisis remains the same. We admit that climate change is occurring, but we tiptoe around hard solutions and continue on with our business-as-usual fossil fuel dependency. World leaders attend these climate summits to save political face, put on some promising rhetoric and draft some non-binding agreement to reduce Co2 emissions that is about as noncommittal as a promise ring on a first date.
The plot of each climate summit runs eerily similar to the movie “Groundhog Day,” but our nightmare persists: we keep waking up to the same repetitive climate nightmare where we lack progress in a political realm. Remember the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 that aimed to come up with a global treaty to reduce climate change but was never ratified by the United States? Joke. Or the 2009 Climate Summit in Copenhagen where President Obama showed up on the last day and remained deadlocked with other foreign leaders until a last minute non-binding resolution was reached but never followed through with? Pointless. So let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that politics are going to be the magical solution to the climate crisis.
So here we are, like Bill Murray’s character in “Groundhog Day,” waking up to another climate summit where the worst carbon offenders (U.S., China, India) continue their dismissal of establishing a legally binding agreement that would ensure a significant reduction in Co2 emissions. Developed countries are still polluting and promising (wink wink) a 25 percent reduction of Co2 emissions. Developed countries are still deadlocked, like they were in Copenhagen, as to how to compensate underdeveloped countries’ lack of contributing to climate change. The details as to who pays for a global transition to clean energy and sanctions over not adhering to climate promises also have persisted during this climate summit.
And until we learn our lesson, the Punxsutawney Political-Phils at the summit will fail to see their shadow, no hard-lined climate action will occur, and the two degree Celsius trajectory will loom nearer and nearer.