Fighting Climate Change

I'm suggesting you read the following before doing any knee-jerk climate denying in the comments section. We need to get our act together or the human species gets to prove Darwin's theory of natural selection.

White House unveils strategy for 2050 net-zero goal

The strategy comes at the start of the global COP26 climate conference, where world leaders are gathering in an attempt to make progress on global climate action.

Biden's plan entails switching to clean energy sources for electricity generation; making many parts of the economy run on electricity, including cars, buildings and industrial processes; increasing energy efficiency and scaling up the use of technology that pulls carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. 

Shifting toward clean electricity goes hand-in-hand with the policy of shifting parts of the economy towards electric power, as cleaner electricity would mean deeper emissions cuts as cars, buildings and industrial processes shift towards electric power. 

The report projects that by 2050, electricity could provide between 15 percent and 42 percent of primary energy.

The big idea: Is democracy up to the task of climate change? 

Could it be that the problem here is not too much democracy, but too little? What if we were to begin with the assumption that people can and do make sensible decisions if they have the evidence and the influence that they need? That if we designed a meaningful dialogue between citizens, experts and governments, we would get better outcomes?

No greenwash and no fudges: Cop26’s success depends on leaders telling the truth 

It will be in the interests of leaders and ministers at Cop26 to pretend more progress has been made than is the reality. Since we cannot negotiate with the science, we must force them – particularly those who have arrived in Glasgow only to reheat old commitments – to confront the truth and negotiate with each other. This summit cannot be a fortnight’s fiesta of pre-packaged announcements; it must amount to a real reckoning to deliver the progress we need.

As part of this, leaders must deliver justice for those in poorer countries who are least responsible for, and most vulnerable to, climate breakdown. It’s time to make good on the promises stacked up, but not delivered – in particular the long overdue $100bn of finance that was promised for developing countries back in 2009, and the prime minister’s pledge at the G7 in June to “vaccinate the world” against Covid. It’s essential that we also recognise the loss and damage many poorer and developing countries face from climate breakdown. This is the way to help reassemble the coalition we saw in Paris between the most vulnerable developing countries and ambitious developed countries, to maximise pressure on the world’s biggest emitters, including China.

We must also head off the attempt to shift the scientific goalposts at Glasgow, which has crept into the UK government’s benchmark of success for these talks. It is positive that countries representing 80% of global GDP are now covered by a net zero target for the middle of the century, but targets three decades in the future do not make up for a failure to act now.

The climate crisis explained in 10 charts 

From The Scotsman: Environment

The London Review of Books will be keeping 26 pieces online for Cop26 here.

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