In a recent speech, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres made an extraordinary suggestion to ban all forms of advertising by all fossil fuel producers in the world. This proposal came after reviewing the apparent failure of the world to limit the increase in the earth’s average temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The common reaction to this proposal was that nations will never be able to force fossil fuel producers to limit their advertising. By the way, this proposal was patterned after the world’s agreement to ban the advertising of cigarettes after it was established that smoking caused cancer and was responsible for massive deaths in the world.
Kelly Gallagher, professor of energy and environmental policy at Fletcher School at Tufts University, recently wrote an article where he said that global greenhouse emissions are higher than ever. After a brief downturn during the Covid-19 pandemic, emissions surged back, reaching their highest level on record in 2022. Preliminary estimates for 2023 indicate that they have continued to rise.
If global emissions do not peak and start to decline in this decade, the earth’s average temperature increase since the pre-industrial era will likely reach 1.5 degrees Celsius before 2030 and 2.1 degrees to 3.4 degrees later in this century. According to Professor Gallagher, “Heat waves and droughts will become more frequent, wildfires will spread further and fresh water will be harder to find in some regions. Rising sea levels will inundate low-lying coastal regions and some small island states, and tropical cyclones and hurricanes will probably intensify.”
Actually, we have seen all these predictions beginning to come true this year. We have just endured the worst heat wave in the Philippines in our lifetime. Fresh water has begun to be a precious commodity.
The United Nations has announced that countries must embrace rapid and sustained reductions in emissions. Last year 2023, the annual UN Conference on Climate Change asked countries to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems. This call fell far short of the call which many climate scientists had hoped for. This inadequate response was seen by many climate activists as another result of lobbying by the powerful fossil fuel producers.
In order to achieve net zero global emissions in 25 years, countries must embrace rapid, substantial and sustained reduction in emission.
However, scientists have concluded that the global temperature increase will likely exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius in the coming decades. The only hope is that if global emissions peak within the next few years and then decline sharply in the following two decades, it is possible that global warming could be held to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.
The powerful influence of fossil fuel producers is evident by the fact that the hosts of the annual UN Climate Conference are major exporters of petroleum. For example, the 2023 UN Climate Conference was held in Dubai by the government of the United Arab Emirates, a major exporter of petroleum.
The next conference in 2024 will be hosted by Azerbaijan, where oil and gas production accounts for half of the country’s GDP and more than 90 percent of its export revenues in 2022.
In 2025, the conference will be held in Brazil which is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and is South America’s largest oil producing country.
The United States plays a leading role in setting the agenda for international cooperation on climate change. It is the world’s largest oil producer and produces even more than Saudi Arabia and Russia. Recently, it was reported in the news that Trump has met with the leaders of the fossil fuel industry and has promised to cooperate with them if they donate $1 billion to his campaign.
Governments must learn to enact and implement climate policies in more effective ways. According to Gallagher, “Many countries remain at an aspirational stage with high level targets, plans and strategies in mind, but few concrete and specific policies on the books. And governments with specific policies often lack the capacity or will to enforce them – for example, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Vietnam.”
Governments need to grow more committed and ambitious in reducing their emissions. The private sector must also be more concerned in raising financing for climate change projects and resisting the lobbying of fossil fuel producers. The grounds for optimism lie in the fact that both leaders and ordinary citizens all over the world know what needs to be done. As the effects of worsening global warming increases, we can only hope that the fossil fuel producers will listen to their conscience and join the struggle to limit global emissions.
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Don’t miss out on Write Things’ final summer creative writing workshop for 2024, our tenth year! Join us in our hybrid workshop for kids and teens on June 24, 26, 28, July 1, 3, 5 (MWF, 3-5 pm) in Fully Booked BGC and via Zoom. It runs for six sessions. Workshop facilitators are Sofi Bernedo, Mica Magsanoc and Roel SR Cruz. Guest authors are fictionist Joel Donato Ching Jacob aka Cupkeyk and poet Dawn Lanuza. For more info: writethingsph@gmail.com.