THE Paris Agreement was a critical moment in time when the world truly seemed to stop just for a second and listen. People looked like they were…
THE Paris Agreement was a critical moment in time when the world truly seemed to stop just for a second and listen. People looked like they were paying attention.Crazed weather, better-organised activists and a change in protest tactics united to unnerve leaders of nations. Business elites looking at their bottom lines whispered nervously into eager ears, those with vested interests wining and dining their powerful friends.
The result was in the winter of 2015, on December 12, the first drafts of an agreement adopted by 195 nations promising that they would reach net zero by cutting out the carbon emissions caused by their obsession with economic growth and scant regard for anything else. The politicians and bag carriers slapped themselves on their backs, put on their favourite ties and expensive suits, and lined up for the photocall to take their bow.Targets were set. They agreed on the minimum requirements necessary to keep us safe, to protect the planet – without costing them too much, of course. Boxes ticked.Yet some were more doubtful. Cynical even. Myself among them. Setting targets was not the bold, progressive change that was needed.
What was needed was action. But markets settled, businesses boomed, political careers flourished – and the media had a new label to use every time a natural disaster happened. On November 4, 2016, the Paris Agreement came into force. Eight years have passed since that first draft, and the doubters are being proved right. We are nowhere near achieving net zero, change isn’t coming nearly fast enough. Because targets were never the solution, action is what was needed., pointed to the evidence in the Global Stocktake Technical Synthesis Report, something which may prove to be one of the most important documents of our time.It makes for grim reading.
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