The issue of climate change took center stage in the global conversation in 2019, after years of scientists ringing alarm bells and activists complaining of political neglect
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th January, 2020) The issue of climate change took center stage in the global conversation in 2019, after years of scientists ringing alarm bells and activists complaining of political neglect. However, the newfound attention has so far failed to translate into clear-cut policy changes or widespread international agreements.
Against a backdrop of climate disasters increasing in frequency and intensity, 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg galvanized media attention and inspired young people around the world to follow her lead in bringing attention to the issue of climate change.
By the end of the year, and after Greta Thunberg was named Time's Person of Year, the most important climate conference of 2019 ended in a whimper, as nations could not put their economic differences aside and commit to a decarbonized future. Nations as different as the United States, China, Australia, Brazil and others were united in their reluctance to place high ambitions in the final declaration. Meanwhile an equally diverse group of nations called for targeting net-zero carbon emissions and ditching fossil fuels for renewable energy.
Climate study after climate study published throughout the year painted the picture of an international community with a disjointed patchwork of priorities. The only thing that compares to the unity witnessed at the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015 is how all nations are falling short of their commitments today.
ACTIVE DEBATES RIFE WITH INACTION
Discussions in politics on the issue of climate change were inescapable this year. With record-breaking heatwaves, destructive floods and wildfires, voices outright denying the issue have all but faded.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's annual press conference began with a question about the effect of global warming on Russia and the country's recent ratification of the Paris Agreement. Putin acknowledged the matter with due gravity, saying that Russia was especially vulnerable to climate change and must do more to mitigate its effects.
The European Commission's new president, Ursula Von Der Leyen, made combatting the "existential threat" of climate change a priority in her first address after assuming office.
United Nations General Secretary Antonio Guterres has meanwhile positioned himself as the most environmentally-minded person to occupy the post, even appearing on the cover of Time magazine in June standing knee-deep in water with a title reading "Our Sinking Planet."
In the United States, the topic has featured heavily in the Democratic presidential primaries, with candidates all having put forward declarations on how they would tackle the issue.
But when it comes to concrete policy, positive changes have been few and far between.
The so-called Green New Deal, a draft resolution introduced by Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez in February, fresh off her midterm victory, only succeeded in deepening divisions in Washington before being shot down in the lower chamber of Congress.
Now a distant memory among US political commentators, the Green New Deal was a tentative non-binding document that sought to draw recognition of the climate issue among politicians and to begin searching for solutions. Specifically, it looked to decarbonize every section of society while at the same time resolving issues of poverty and inequality.
Such lofty prospects, however, caused anxiety by overemphasizing the transformative effects that tackling climate change would have on society. Taking these concerns into account, US President Donald Trump this year formally withdrew from the Paris Agreement � a move he announced in 2017 � and rolled back over 80 climate protection policies, according to a Harvard study cited by CNBC.
Major elections held throughout the year have yet to show a clear correlation between the voting public and the issue of climate change.
In the United Kingdom, for example, Prime Minister Boris Johnson refused to attend pre-election climate debates, giving other party leaders the fuel they needed to go after the Conservative Party's poor environmental track record. It was all for naught, however, as the ruling party went on to win a crushing victory in the December general election with voters seemingly more fixated on "getting Brexit done" and stabilizing a beleaguered healthcare system.
It came as no surprise when Time Magazine bestowed its coveted "Person of the Year" title onto youth eco-activist Greta Thunberg in early December. Even her many critics could not deny the fact that the 16-year-old Swede was a new phenomenon on the global stage.
According to Time magazine, Greta Thunberg "has succeeded in creating a global attitudinal shift, transforming millions of vague, middle-of-the-night anxieties into a worldwide movement calling for urgent change."
She dominated news cycles throughout 2019, and her name quickly became shorthand for people speaking about climate issues for the first time, and for critics taking issue with her message and its methods of delivery.
That Thunberg was able to shoot to that level of prominence in just over a year is a testament to two factors: the global climate activism community's years-long need for an icon and the editorial culture of mass media in 2019, susceptible as it is to hype and the bandwagon effect.
Thunberg's entire inspirational path, from skipping school to protest climate inaction outside Sweden's parliament to zig-zagging the Atlantic Ocean by sea and delivering impassioned speeches at the United Nations, can be seen as one media opportunity after another.
Indeed, Thunberg's own public activism began with her essay winning a contest organized by Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet in May 2018.
In the fall of that year, Swedish PR guru and climate activist Ingmar Rentzhog was on his way to work when he happened to cross Thunberg on her very first strike, according to The Pluralist magazine. He snapped a few photos of the young activist with her sign reading "SKOLSTREJK FOR KLIMATET" (school strike for the climate) which went viral on Scandinavian social media.
The story very quickly reached national media as well as Swedish political leaders, who personally reached out to Thunberg. This snowball effect served as the basis on which young activist's Fridays for Future strikes began Thungerb's own strikes happened on that day every week. Starting in northern Europe and then spreading around the world, students skipped class on Fridays in protest against government inaction on climate change.
By January 2019, Thunberg became part of the global consciousness with her appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Sharing a stage with economic elites in front of every major business news outlet, Thunberg read a statement in a calm voice saying "our house is on fire" and "I don't want you to feel hopeful, I want you to panic."
The momentum kept building until March 15, when more than 1.5 million people in 125 countries took to the streets in more than 2,000 organized events, according to The Guardian, all hailing Thunberg as an inspiration and turning the youngster into a household name.
It was the first such phenomenon and largest of its kind until September when a week-long strike in September drew 6 million people into the streets in 4,500 locations in 150 countries, according to The Guardian.
Thunberg arguably reached her peak in September when she participated in the climate strikes in the world's media hub, New York City, which she reached in a much-publicized trans-Atlantic voyage aboard a racing yacht. It was there that she gave a number of high-profile interviews that led up to her now iconic speech at the UN Climate Action Summit on September 23.
True to her commitment to the cause, Thunberg returned to Europe aboard a catamaran. Following a three-week journey across the Atlantic, she arrived in the Portugense capital of Lisbon on December 3 and went straight on to Spain to attend the 25th UN Climate Change Conference (COP25).
Thunberg, now Time's news "Person of the Year," struck a more calm tone at the annual conference in Madrid and announced that she would be taking a break for an undisclosed amount of time. However, she assured everyone that she would return.
In contrast to Thunberg's hopeful youth movement, the grassroots Extinction Rebellion voiced a more radical call to action through disruptive and shocking means throughout the course of the year.
Unlike Thunberg, adherents of Extinction Rebellion found the need to physically put themselves at risk, to blemish their criminal records and to disrupt public life in order to bring attention to the climate crisis.
Still, they managed to get only a fraction of the media coverage that Thunberg enjoyed, and in regards to impacting climate policy or elections, they have yet to even register on the radar.
Mostly centered in the UK, but with supporters also appearing in other locations, the grassroots movement produced striking images of civil disobedience not seen since the Occupy movement earlier in the decade.
The group was established in October 2018 by veteran activists Gail Bradbrook and Roger Hallam, but it wasn't until spring of 2019 that their nonviolent, disruptive action caught widespread attention.
In a matter of months, seemingly average law-abiding citizens could be seen carrying out acts of civil disobedience and causing harm to themselves and public property in order to bring attention to the urgent need for radical climate action.
They have poured buckets of fake blood outside government buildings, stripped down to their underwear in UK parliament during Brexit debates and shut down bridges in coordinated actions. In early October, a blind man who was part of Extinction Rebellion climbed aboard an airplane before take-off at London City Airport to protest the environmental impact of air travel.
The group put forward three demands, all directed at the ruling authorities: to tell the truth about the extent of the climate crisis, to create a citizen's assembly that would make decisions on climate matters, and to reduce carbon emissions to net-zero by 2025. They also have 10 principles outline their code of conduct and system, and anyone who follows them can take action in the name of Extinction Rebellion.
"Never doubt that a small group of people can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has," sang members of the movement while blocking traffic on a bridge in London, as seen in a video report from The Guardian.
It remains to be seen whether this small group of people can change the world or whether they will only succeed in drawing the ire of urban commuters.
On the back of an extraordinary year for climate activism, COP25 began with a sense of buzz reminiscent of when the Paris Agreement was being created in 2015.
The conference was the last before Glasgow 2020, where countries are due to submit their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for the first Paris Agreement implementation cycle.
About 30,000 people from 196 countries were accredited to spell out the Paris Agreement rule book and set the stage for the induction of NDCs next year. The biggest issue on the COP25 agenda was renegotiating or finding a replacement for the landmark 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the carbon emissions binding and trading system that is set to expire next year.
Despite leaders of developing nations and international organizations urging negotiators to display political will, the harrowing testimonies from climate refugees and leaders of sinking Pacific island nations, and the negotiations going two days past the deadline for releasing the final declaration, the results of the conference were disappointing to many.
This was not aided by the fact that European Union could not unanimously commit to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 Poland objected at length and reserved the right not to comply.
What is more is that the much-needed decision-making on the future of the Kyoto Protocol was set aside for next year.
The driving forces behind the gutting of all high ambitions from the final declaration were some of the world's largest economies and oil producers, including the United States, Saudi Arabia, India, China, Brazil and Australia. On any other day, these countries are competitors and some even adversaries, but the prospect of risking their mercurial economic growth through artificial limitations brought them together under a common cause.
"COP25 was a success for the fossil fuel industry their interests have won, effectively blocking the process and undermining the end result. As time ran out, the COP looked more and more like a hostage situation inside a burning building together with most negotiators, people and planet were held captive," a statement read from May Boeve, Executive Director of climate campaign group 350.org, said.
UN chief Guterres said the international community "lost an important opportunity" and placed hopes on a breakthrough next year in Scotland.
The Santiago Action Plan can be seen as the only positive highlight of the conference. In it, 50 finance ministers vow to set aside room in their respective budgets for investments into climate solutions.
ALL EYES ON UK FOR CLIMATE FUTURE
With a host of issues posted until next year, the negotiations in Glasgow will have to be exceptionally productive to be considered a success.
The COP presidency is now in the hands of the United Kingdom, and it falls onto them to provide leadership in drafting action plans and roadmaps to be readied for next year's crucial conference
However, with public and political life preoccupied with Brexit, which is also scheduled for next year, the risk is that political and economic matters of the present may once again outweigh environmental and humanitarian ones of the future.
According to the Global Carbon Project, mankind will have emitted 36 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere before delegates meet again is Glasgow in November 2020.
