This year, at the COPE 2024 Conference on Climate Change, the nations of the world recognized theyare facing new challenges.
First of all, even though renewable energy sources like wind and solar are being used more and more around the world, overall demand for electricity has risen even faster, and the world is still burning more and more fossil fuels each year. All of this is happening at the crucial time, when our window of opprtunity to hold global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius is rapidly closing.
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Added to this challenge are geopolitical conflicts, from the U.S.-China rivalry to wars in Ukraine and Gaz. These conflicts have made international cooperation on climate change more difficult.
Perhaps most damaging to the cause of stopping global warming is the election of Donald J. Trump less than a week before the summit’s opening day. Trump, supportive of the gas and oil industries, ran on platform of ‘Drill baby, drill.’
Until now, as the world’s largest economy with significant sway over global financial institutions, the United States has been essential in meeting climate finance pledges. Mr. Trump’s presidency is likely to obstruct or even eliminate U.S. involvement in that effort.
Another challenge is that the Republican-led Congress will likely curtail funding for Ukraine, placing a greater financial burden for Ukrainian assistance on European allies, thereby leaving fewer resources from those countries available for addressing global warming, especially to island nations faced with sea level rise.
Negotiators and diplomats at COPE 24 said Mr. Trump’s election has created an even greater sense of urgency. With the very real prospect of less U.S. leadership on the climate change front, their conclusion is that it is time for other wealthy nations to step in and take the lead in helping the world economies that are still largely dependent on fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas to transition to clean energy.
“I think when we came in here the question was, ‘Does the U.S. have no juice?’” said John Podesta, President Biden’s climate envoy. He said his team had been “extremely active in the negotiations,” and “despite the president-elect’s rhetoric,” the United States would continue reducing its emissions over Mr. Trump’s term in office.
“The U.S. economy has strong momentum and will continue to achieve climate goals,” Podesta said.
Perhaps the greatest value of this year’s conference is the recognition that we’ve reached the end of a phase. It is now time to shift the responsibility for limiting global temperature rise from governmental regulation to informed choice by citizens and the business sector, whose private investments are making clear energy more and more profitable. In other words, let the market drive it forward.
Private investment is already gaining momentum in the U.S. economy. So there is hope, and reason to keep working hard to eliminate fossil fuels and encourage renewable energy despite political resistance from the White House and many in Congress.
Article based on stories in New York Times during November 2024
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