COP27 is currently underway in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, with political and environmental leaders from around the world meeting at the seaside destination to attempt to make some more headway in tackling global warming. Despite all the fanfare and optimism preceding this event, as there was for COP26 in Glasgow last year, little progress seems to have been made so far.
The target made at the Paris Climate Summit in 2015 of limiting global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius has is becoming less and less achievable as time drags on. Countries that committed to the target are falling behind across the board, with individual targets set cumulatively falling short of the overall target. Not only this, but even those lacklustre commitments set by nations are not being fulfilled, again limiting the possibility of keeping 1.5 alive.
Global temperatures have already risen by 1.1 degrees Celsius since the Paris summit. To keep further rises below .4 degrees, there needs to be significant progress made in the remaining week of this summit, but by all accounts, certain important talks are not progressing as expected in Sharm El Sheikh. Loss and Damage talks (reparations from the most polluting nations to the least polluting experiencing the worst of climate change) have reached an impasse, and cover text negotiations are still in in their infancy.
It has been reported that China and Saudi Arabia, two nations greatly benefitting from the continued exploitation of fossil fuels, are holding up the talks, especially those concerning reparations.
Last year’s COP was hampered by fossil fuel interests present at the summit, and the final statement was restricted in the strength of its language by China and India. Such actors cannot be allowed to restrict this year’s agreement. Action on climate change must be radical and unprecedented this year if the climate emergency is to be appropriately addressed.
The importance of these talks, and of sticking to the 1.5 target, cannot be understated. Each day that passes becomes more pivotal than the last, as temperatures continue to rise, fossil fuel consumption continue to increase, and excuses for this behaviour continue to be made. Assertions that we are at a turning point in the fight against climate change are as accurate as ever.
If the climate emergency wasn’t evident in recent years, it surely is now. Island nations in the Pacific are sinking beneath the ever-rising sea, with nations such as Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, and Tuvalu experiencing degradation of agricultural lands and drink water due to rising sea levels. Plans are being drawn up to evacuate entire nations to more hospitable areas because, in a few years, there will not be much of their land left above water.
The Middle East and North Africa are experiencing the worst drought in 40 years, destroying livelihoods and devastating communities. The region has been plagued for years by political instability due to rising poverty and near-constant conflict, and now that temperatures in the region are rising by as much as 7%, these crises will only be exacerbated.
The Tigris and Euphrates rivers that run through Iraq are known as the cradle of modern civilisation, and have nourished and fertilised the land surrounding them for tens of thousands of years. But now, they are nearly bone dry, with disastrous consequences for those who depend on the rivers for their lives and livelihoods.
Somalia is experiencing a devastating drought that has put over 500,000 children in the nation at risk of death in the next few months, from starvation, disease, and dehydration. Fields of dead livestock and withered crops stretch for miles, and the nation is now almost entirely reliant on foreign aid shipments to keep its populace alive.
On top of this, Somalia is still in the throes of a devastating civil war between Government forces and the Islamic militant group Al-Shabab, who control most of the worst affected areas. Due to this, aid is not being sent to the areas because of the risk of aid being seized by militants, only deepening the crisis.
These issues are only expected to worsen in the coming months and years, as progress in tackling climate change is still sluggish. Despite the near-cataclysmic events we are seeing all around the world that have been unequivocally linked to man-made climate change, so many nations and companies are still hesitant to act decisively, acting in the interests of their bottom lines instead of the common good.
The fact is, if we leave this crisis any longer, it will not matter if oil and gas companies go broke. It will not matter if tax revenues plummet, if inflation worsens, if economies tank further than they already are, because too many people will be dying for governments to care.
Famines and droughts like we are seeing in Somalia and the Middle East will be endemic across the world. Nations will lose vast swathes of land to rising sea levels, and entire islands will disappear. Biodiversity, already in startlingly steep decline, will be decimated.
All of these likely outcomes will have a devastating effect on agriculture and food prices, already at alarmingly high levels due to the war in Ukraine. If current trends continue and fossil fuels are given continuing precedence over green energy, millions across the world will starve.
The lack of real environmental progress at COP27 is awfully disappointing. It is not likely that any meaningful commitment to ending fossil fuel usage or increase in green energy production, with the majority of the focus of this COP being on loss and damage payments from developed, polluting nations to those less developed nations suffering the worst effects of climate change.
Whilst this is a worthwhile cause, and is most certainly a step that needs to be taken in the fight against climate change, it is merely a damage limitation measure, not a damage prevention measure.
If we are to stop climate change in its tracks, and start building a liveable future for our children, fossil fuels must be consigned to history. That will not happen at this COP, and so the world edges ever closer to irreversible climate disaster.
stay safe
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