The climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland ended with an agreement that leaves the earth on a disastrous track toward catastrophic warming and crisis. Once again the interests of the fossil fuel companies and wealthy countries were protected at the expense of most of the countries of the world. All the world, but particularly the Global South and island nations are already experiencing the most horrendous effects of climate change including floods, hurricanes, life threatening heat waves, food shortages and fires.
The language of the agreement is too watered down and weak to limit carbon emissions to 1.5 degrees Celsius warming in the next ten years, the scientifically accepted limit to avoid the most catastrophic consequences of climate change. As a result, millions of people will have their lives and lands ruined and will be forced from their homes and homelands. Pledges for reparations, mitigation and the development of carbon free energy from the wealthy countries were grossly inadequate. The United States, and many European nation have caused the vast majority of environmental and emissions damage while poorer countries, which are responsible for a very small amount of carbon emissions, have been most affected and desperately need money to build green energy economies.
The scapegoating of India and China, especially by the Biden administration, is disingenuous and hypocritical. They used this event as political theater patting themselves on the back, when they’ve actually done nothing but make this dire situation worse. Allowing projects like tar sands oil pipelines like Line 3 to continue the building of fossil fuel infrastructure.
It is clear that we can not count on governments or world meetings to solve this existential problem. Unlike the politicians and polluters that chose profits over people, tens of thousands of climate justice activists from around the world converged on Glasgow demanding an end to the theft of their resources, the polluting of their air, water and land and for sovereignty and self determination. It is up to us here in the belly of the beast to organize and continue to build a fighting climate justice movement in all our cities and in all communities, which will be able to hold the politicians and fossil fuel companies to account.
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