The World Should Condemn the US for its Irresponsible Actions on Climate Change

The global climate change conference, known as COP30, is now going on in the Amazonian town of Belem in Brazil from November 10 to 21. This is the 30th conference of the countries who are signatories to the UN Framework for Climate Change Convention, held every year under the auspices of the United Nations. The first conference under the formal treaty was held in Berlin in 1995. At present there are 198 countries who are parities to the convention.

The formal treaty was signed in 1992, based on the report of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC), submitted to the United Nations two years earlier, in 1990. All these developments were the result of many years of patient academic studies and scientific research that established the connection between human economic activities and the rising global warming and the disastrous consequences of climate change. It was based on these established scientific truths that the world came to several agreements on climate change mitigation and steps to support the peoples who are victims of such developments. Some of the major international agreements reached as part of these talks are the Kyoto Protocol signed in 1997 and the Paris Accord reached in 2015.

In the past many years, despite differences on the part of various countries on their responsibility for the present disastrous situation and their willingness to contribute for mitigation efforts to face the rising tide of global warming, most countries were in agreement that the climate change is a real and immediate threat that needs to be addressed by the entire humanity. Hence the united efforts on the part of the various governments to reduce use of fossil fuels which are seen as a major contributor for global warming, to find ways for supporting financially and technologically the low-lying countries and islands who face the threat of submergence because of rising sea level, and many other innovative initiatives. The carbon credit system developed in recent years is a corporate friendly climate tool, where a country or a corporate firm can buy carbon credits from other countries with less emissions to offset their carbon footprints, or the amount of carbon dioxide they are releasing to the atmosphere beyond acceptable levels. With these steps, it was hoped that the rate of increase in global warming could be kept below 2 per cent compared to the pre industrial level, or even to the level of 1.5 percent.

But such hopes are now practically dashed. Even the most optimistic scientists do not believe the rate of increase of global warming can be kept at 1.5 percent, and even the efforts at keeping it below 2 percent is looking more and more difficult. One of the major setbacks for the present climate mitigation efforts is political — the American establishment controlled by the most reactionary right-wing groups associated with President Donald Trump, consider that the talk about climate change is simply absurd. They are against any efforts to reduce fossil fuel use, they also oppose the efforts to transition from highly polluting energy sources like coal to more climate friendly sources like solar or wind power, and the result has been that the United States, one of the countries with the largest carbon footprint, has unilaterally withdrawn from all its commitments in the global climate agreements.

This is a most irresponsible action on the part of the Trump administration, which will definitely have consequences not only for the present generation, but also for the coming generations. But unfortunately, the corporate forces who are more keen on making money are the ones who control the leading nation of the capitalist world today. But the world will have to move ahead, making efforts to support victims of climate change, whether the rich countries help them or not. For this the success of deliberations at Belem will be a major yardstick as its victory will be a boon to the people who are now facing the consequences of the actions of the rich and powerful capitalist world.

Mohammad Shafi
National Vice President