Select a region
An Express reader is arguing that we cannot sit back and let politicians gathering in Scotland be the only ones who act on climate change.
Robert Wareing-Jones had this to say...
COP26 is the next annual UN climate change conference taking place next month in Glasgow.
COP stands for Conference of the Parties, and the summit will be attended by the countries that signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – a treaty that came into force in 1994.
There is already a great deal of cynicism concerning the potential for this conference to just be a rerun of others! Lots of talk and precious little action - or as Greta Thunberg claims, just more ‘Blah Blah Blah!’
The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in August, makes devastating reading. 1.5C temperature rise will be reached by 2040 – or even sooner.
This will lead to more dramatic weather patterns and even faster global biodiversity loss – and with that, huge disruption to human life. In light of that, what does this mean for the commitments that must be made at COP26?
Clearly governments are expected to make determined, decisive and life-changing decisions in light of these hard-hitting scientific findings.
The cuts required to slow and eventually reverse climate change (and subsequent biodiversity loss) will mean a total change of economic systems from the fossil fuel industry.
COP, therefore, must agree to much faster and steeper greenhouse gas emission cuts than the targets most countries currently have. Even if current targets are delivered, it would still leave the world heading for a totally catastrophic 3-4 degree rise in temperature above the pre-industrial average.
One of the problems we face in our daily lives, is the reality that we can be guilty of expecting our political leaders to address all the ills of the world, while we watch from the sidelines, arguing for greater action by those elected into power.
I have read only recently within the local media a claim by one former politician that anything Jersey might do in tackling the climate crisis will be so infinitesimal, as to be meaningless.
The opinion writer added the financial cost cannot therefore be justified and the government would be better advised to spend the taxpayers money on other pressing matters. He may well have a point as there are, indeed, many other pressing matters to challenge the Council of Ministers and Members of the States Assembly.
Many of these issues have regularly been debated through this medium and others so nothing new to add here.
I find myself wondering why it is that we look at these political leaders as being the only ones with all the answers. During the Covid pandemic, we have heard constantly that we must ‘follow the science’.
Decisions on lockdowns, face coverings and the vaccine rollout are all testament to the ability of our political masters to control our lives. But what actions should we be taking ourselves?
We have plenty of evidence now of the climate crisis and its outcomes as laid bare by those in the know. The scientists and others working in the field have kept us well informed.
The broadcast media have highlighted the issues regularly and it's hard to ignore the newscasts that update us daily on changing weather patterns and global warming.
If we just look to COP 26 to provide the solutions and implementation of the necessary actions alone to tackle climate change, we should not be surprised, if we are left disappointed.
Each and everyone of us can make changes in how we live. A few simple actions that require just a commitment to reduce, reuse and recycle for example. If we were only to live less extravagantly and more lightly what could collective action achieve?
Mahatma Gandhi, Indian lawyer and political ethicist once advised “Be the change that you wish to see in the world”.
Not so much ‘Blah Blah Blah’ and more ‘Do Do Do’.
Robert Wareing-Jones
Le Chemin des Maltieres, Grouville
