Global climate change is no longer a problem that may occur in the distant future; the catastrophe is already upon us. Years of rising temperatures and melting polar ice caps have caused a massive increase in natural disasters. Famine has become more commonplace and may even have contributed to the civil war in Syria. Coastal areas around the world may soon be inundated, creating millions of climate refugees. Yet the international community has been slow to respond.
The Paris agreement on reducing carbon emissions was signed in 2016 by most countries of the world but it didn’t set binding targets and even its suggested recommendations do not go anywhere near far enough to avert disaster. Even this soft agreement was further weakened when one of the largest polluters in the world, the US, pulled out of the Paris accords last year. The chances that the US will play any role in combating climate change are close to zero. US President Donald Trump and the Republican Party refuse to even accept the reality of climate change. All this has cast a pall over climate talks being held this week in the Polish city of Katowice. A major human-caused extinction is upon us but the major powers are still quibbling over details. They are worried that the measures required tackle the problem will slow economic growth, as if the future of our existence as we know it is less important than a GDP percentage point.
There is still some reason for hope. The Paris agreement was the first time China and India, two countries that had been increasing their carbon footprint faster than any other countries in the world, agreed to reduce emissions. China has been successful in transitioning away from coal to cleaner energy sources. But the shift isn’t happening fast enough. Climate scientists are worried that we may have already passed the tipping point. The Katowice talks betray a lack of ambitions as the main agenda is to work out how to implement the Paris agreement and not set binding rules on how much each country needs to reduce emissions. In Pakistan, the PTI government has at least acknowledged just how much of a threat climate change poses to us but its proposed solution of planting a billion trees falls woefully short. In fact, under CPEC, we have been ramping up projects that utilise dirty energy sources. As one of the countries predicted to suffer the most due to climate change, Pakistan should be operating on an emergency footing. We will only overcome the worst effects of climate change with concerted global action but every country needs to start doing its bit now.