The opinion of experts on the effectiveness of the measures adopted to date to combat climate change ranges between those who think that we have come a long way, although not yet enough, and those who warn that we only have room left to mitigate the worst omens. While more and more citizens are aware that the climate emergency, whose effects they can already see effectively in their day-to-day lives, is a reality, they are also growing the populist proclamations of the extreme right negationist. While academics once again urged action without delay in the diagnosis of the sixth IPCC report, released just a year ago, a series of chained crises – the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the double shock energy and raw materials – have added new emergencies that greatly complicate the will to apply some of the decisions taken at last year’s climate summit, held in Glasgow (COP26).
In the same way, at the same time that they have registered notable legislative advances in countries such as the United States -recently approved by the Senate-, Chile or Spain (Climate Change and Energy Transition Law), in others, pressured to guarantee a sufficient energy supply, have opted for a rehabilitation, even temporary, of coal. Because it is a fact that the distortion of the energy market due to the war in Ukraine and the uncertainties about the supply of Russian gas have placed governments such as Germany in a situation of considerable vulnerability. In other words: many of the measures planned to limit global warming are on paper, but they are far from being put into practice despite the worsening of the climate emergency.
The abnormally high and persistent temperatures this summer are just one example of how far the planet is hurtling towards a critical situation. Even with rigorous application of what was agreed in Glasgow, the increase in the average temperature of the planet would rise between 1.8 degrees and 2.4 degrees in the coming years, between 3 and 9 tenths above the previously set target of 1.5 degrees. Something that will undoubtedly have great social and economic implications, as worrying as the repercussion that climate change is already having on agriculture, fishing, industrial processes and daily life in large cities. And that it can be aggravated if emissions are not halved by 2030 to avoid exorbitant global warming.
To preserve the future and avoid further degradation of the environment, a minimum of three measures are essential: tackle the expansion of fossil fuels and promote clean energy, change the model of growth and consumption – the resistance to specific energy saving measures due to the Ukrainian crisis shows how difficult it will be – and adopt at the COP27, to be held in Egypt in November, precise measures, concrete and non-deferrable fulfillment. The decision approved in Glasgow to put off until the next summit the most complex issues and the realization of major transformations that were necessary was disappointing in itself, but it would be much more disappointing if, in three months’ time, the adoption of decisions applying to global scale. Without them, we will be closer every day to the worst predictions coming true and the future of future generations becoming dark.