COP26: What It Is? Why It Is?

[Sukla Sen]

It has already started.

Being held from October 31 - November 12, in Glasgow, UK.

In order to update the Paris Climate Agreement, 2015.

Donald Trump, the then US President had, last year, formally withdrawn from the Paris Agreement - in the conclusion of which the scum's predecessor, Barack Obama, had played a major role; Biden, the incumbent President, has rejoined.

Even then, among the major world leaders, Xi Jinping, Putin and Bolsonaro won't be there.

The Mexican, South African and Iranian Presidents are also unlikely to turn up.

(Looks like, of the BRICS heads, only Modi would be there.)

It's necessary to keep in mind that, as of now, the US, China and India are the top emitters of greenhouse gases - in that order.

Because of (conscious) activities of humans - one of the numberless (living) species on the planet earth, since the Industrial Revolution in particular, the ecology of the planet is getting gravely impacted and as a consequence the planet is, perhaps, set to lose its unique position in the Universe and even beyond as the only one (known to be) hosting life.

In any case, the humanity is faced with the real possibility of extinction.

The Climate Conference is, arguably, a part of the collective endeavour of humanity to grapple with that grim future.

Many would argue: too little, too late.

<<Climate change refers to the effects of global warming — a worldwide average temperature increase of 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 Fahrenheit) — recorded since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century. As humans burn fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas, the atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, which trap heat, rise. The effects of this, such as sea-level rise and more extreme weather, have already begun. If left unchecked, greenhouse gas emissions will lead to several more degrees of warming with devastating results for people in vulnerable areas.

...

There has been a Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC, or COP, every year since 1995. The first agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions was the Kyoto Protocol, struck in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan. (Kyoto was COP3.) Most years, the COP is dedicated to discussing the mundane details of implementation of the existing agreements, but every five or six years, there is a major conference to try to forge an updated agreement.

The last agreement was signed in 2015, in Paris. Countries agreed to re-adjurn in five years to update the agreement to make it stronger. Last year, however, it was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

...

While nations agreed in Paris to limit the global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial average, and to make their best efforts to hold it down to 1.5C, their actual pledged actions will lead to at least 2.7C of warming by the end of this century.

Scientific projections suggest that much warming will lead to extremely harmful and dangerous consequences: brutal heat waves, turbo-charged storms, sea levels rising by several feet and raging forest fires.

So, the hope in Paris was that as nations switch to clean energy sources such as solar and wind, that they would be willing to make more ambitious commitments to cut emissions in the next agreement.

...

If successful, countries will negotiate an agreement to set a [revised] limit on warming and specify what each will do to limit its emissions [in order that the revised goal is achieved]. But they will also need to agree on funding to help developing nations meet their own emissions targets.>>

(Excerpted from: <https://news.yahoo.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-cop-26-the-un-climate-change-conference-in-glasgow-scotland-090013059.html>.)

Also look up: <https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/10/31/whos-going-to-cop26-and-who-wont-be-there-for-the-un-climate-talks.html> and <https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/51372486.amp>.

For a backgrounder: 'Earth, Its Ecology and Human Footprints – The Necessary Struggle' by Sukla Sen at <http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article13133>.

In this context, it'd be pertinent to keep the following in mind.

The earth's ecology performs two major life-sustaining functions: (i) as a vast, but not unlimited, reservoir of useful resources and (ii) a huge - but, again, not limitless, sink to absorb harmful wastes - solid, liquid and gaseous, almost without exception, produced by the living inhabitants of the planet.

In the event, both the extraction of non-renewable resources and dumping of waste products are, almost entirely, the doings of humans - in course of their "economic activities".

While in pre-industrial societies the "economy" used to grow only at simple rates, "industrial civilisation" has changed all that. Now it grows at compound rates and so do (broadly) the rates of "extraction" and "dumping".

In case the "economy" grows @3%, it doubles in (less than) 25 years, (more than) 4 times in 50 years, 16 times in 100 years and 256 times in 200 years.

Incidentally, the long term growth rate of the "global economy" is round about 3%.

The earth's life-sustaining "ecology" has now, as a result, started to collapse.

That's, precisely, the very long and short of it.

The "climate crisis" is a definitive indicator that the "sink" has started sinking.