Every year at this time, and at the behest of the UN, the species is reminded that we are all, without possible exception, in a race against the clock on which our survival depends. This time, the call came from the 2020 Climate Ambition Summit, also organized – virtually, as is the norm of these times – by the United Kingdom and France. The appointment is the prelude to the Conference on Climate Change (COP26) that will take place in Glasgow (Scotland).
More than big announcements, the event aimed to feel the atmosphere for the appointment in Glasgow, in which a thorough review of what was agreed in Paris five years ago is expected, in order to set more ambitious goals and chase away the ghost that they already announce entities as serious as the World Meteorological Organization of a possible increase of 3 to 5 degrees in the average temperature of the planet between now and 2100 if, said colloquially, ‘we continue as we are’. This possible scenario would be catastrophic.
Judging by what was observed on Saturday, five years after the Paris Agreement, four years after the election of Donald Trump and one after the first positive case of the new coronavirus, it can be said that optimism is timidly looming again.
And it is that although the projections of the experts are still scary and the obstacles in the way are gigantic – for example, the infamous denialism of powers such as Brazil, Mexico and Australia -, a series of factors that were not present just a year ago feed a new hope. The triumph of Joe Biden in the United States elections, which will allow the power to return to the agreement and resume a necessary leadership role; China’s recent commitment to reach carbon neutrality by 2060 (this country is the one that emits the most greenhouse gases), encouraging signs from Korea and Japan and what the covid-19 pandemic has meant not only in terms of reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, but in terms of a deep questioning of the lifestyles that in recent decades have caused so much damage to ecosystems.
The pandemic may be the opportunity for radical change, but it also embodies the risk of
things get worse
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In the words of Pope Francis, who had his space in the virtual meeting, “the time has come for a change of course.” The pontiff insisted on the need to promote an integral ecology education in order not to “rob the new generations of hope in a better future.”
Of course, the risk is also very high that poverty, a consequence of the pandemic, as well as the increase in inequality, also as a result of the covid, end up taking a painful toll on the environment.
With regard to Colombia, the announcement of a more ambitious goal in reducing greenhouse gas emissions called attention: 51 percent by 2030. For this, in addition to a clean growth law and a Conpes that guarantees That this is a State policy – as it should be, there is no doubt – it is vital that good intentions are translated as soon as possible into truly effective actions to stop the cutting down of forests, which this year has produced truly terrifying figures.
EDITORIAL
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