Governments still dilly-dallying on climate action

Young delegates arrive at MiCo Congress centre to attend Youth4Climate: Driving Ambition event in Milan to plan for Glasgow. Picture: Getty Images.

Now that we have had a couple of decades to thoroughly debate the issue of climate change, we should have had an understanding around the world about what should be done to combat it.

Instead, we still have the climate change deniers proclaiming that the world view of the scientific community is wrong. The deniers are a hard lot to shift, and they remain oblivious to any evidence that is put before them. Sadly, some of the true believers in climate change have taken extremist stances which devalue the good work being done by so many to come up with an appropriate response to a critical issue.

The accords reached in Paris a few years ago will be re-examined at yet another conference in Glasgow in the coming weeks. Some of those who will attend that conference will be hoping to get genuine agreement. Unfortunately, some will already be working on the one thing these conferences always produce. I refer of course to the “meaningless communique”.

These documents are usually known for their weasel words and their complete failure to indicate a course of action to fix the problems with which they have been grappling.

Some of those attending will have vast experience with the kind of document referred to above. Staying in the five and six-star hotels and living on very generous daily allowances means a punishing schedule of breakfasts, lunches and dinners all of which will be described in their notes and reports as “meetings”.

I went to one such conference in 1991 in the Dutch coastal town of Noordwijk. I was less than impressed, but not too surprised that nothing of consequence was decided except to carry unanimously a resolution that the conference would reconvene as soon as possible in yet another European resort. There is some chance that something good might come out of the Glasgow deliberations because however you choose to describe Glasgow, you would not be using words like “resort”.

It is a tough and gritty town with plenty of no-go areas and is not famed for any kind of kitchen excellence. A wee dram of whiskey still goes down well.

Still, in the northern hemisphere pretty well every government in Europe believes it has a duty to do something about climate change as a duty to its people. Macron, Johnson et al. rate the issue as right up there with the hip-pocket nerve when it comes to the casting of votes. In the northern hemisphere the melting of glaciers seems to be the herald of change, in the southern hemisphere the regular inundation of low-lying Pacific islands carries a similar, but equally graphic, image. Try telling the people of Kiribati that climate change is a myth. Anyone attempting that will need luck to get out alive.

Yet governments are still dilly-dallying on real action. They do so because while the mob might acknowledge or even fear climate change, they are extremely unhappy about paying for remediation. We all want the cake, and we all want to eat it too.

Whatever action is to be taken we need to be real about coal. There can be no question that coal will be a major contributor to our power grid for decades to come. Talk of phasing it out in a decade or two, is just that – talk. Coal produces relatively cheap electricity, and that energy is reliable. Renewables remain way too expensive for a major role and battery technology is lagging behind where many of its promoters believed it would be at this point. We will continue to export coal to China (despite the odd diplomatic hold up) and India well into the future.