If Climate Emergency Was a Wall Street Bank, It Would Have Been Rescued Long Ago

The staggering lack of political will has been the highlight of COP26

Markus Spiske via Unsplash

The climate change conference is over. And we are right back to where we started. The developed nations, which are almost exclusively responsible for the mess with which we are grappling, have as usual, made empty promises on their commitment to reducing emissions and at the same time passed on a huge degree of responsibility to two of the largest emerging economies. These countries — India and China — fully aware of the game being played by the West, disagreed with the wording of the final deal, thus ensuring that the last fortnight has been a waste of time.

And who are we to blame India and China? knowing fully well that Britain will be building a coal plant in the coming months, and yet expects India and China to fold its arms and do nothing.

The extraordinary failure of the final phase of the summit very nearly reduced Alok Sharma, the President of COP26 to tears.

Now, what does this tell us about the last few weeks?

There is absolutely no political will from either the developing or developed nations in tackling the profound climate emergency on which the continued existence of humanity is contingent.