In April 2021, there were two reasons to be excited about the possibility the world would finally vigorously respond to the climate emergency. 350.org and over 140 other national and international organizations and affiliates sponsored a virtual three-day Global Just Recovery Gathering. There were over 200 workshops offered by climate activists from around the world. Featured speakers included Dr. Vandana Shiva, India, Naomi Klein, Canada, Greta Thunberg, Sweden, and Bill McKibben, United States. Two weeks later the Biden administration sponsored a virtual global Leaders Summit on Climate that was addressed by among others the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Presidents of China, France, and Russia, Pope Francis, the Prime Minister of India, the Mayor of Paris, an indigenous leader from Brazil, and American business leaders.
At the April Leaders Summit on Climate, President Biden announced that the United States would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by between 50 and 52% below 2005 levels by 2030, but he did not offer a roadmap for achieving the goal. Other Japan, Canada, Great Britain and the European Union made similar promises, but also without offering any concrete plans. In his opening remarks at the Summit, President Xi Jinping pledged that China would “strictly limit increasing coal consumption” and cap its fossil fuel emissions by 2030, but that would mean an increase in CO2 released into the atmosphere for almost a decade, probably enough to counter global reduction efforts. Russia, Mexico, Australia, India, and Indonesia, all major atmospheric polluters, made no new pledges to cut down on their use of coal, oil, or gas. I was also disappointed that none of the “leaders” involved in the Global Just Recovery Gathering were included in the program.
The same week as the April 2021 Global Just Recovery Gathering, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that despite a worldwide economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere reached 412.5 parts per million, a higher level than at anytime in the previous 3.6 million years. 3.6 million years ago, carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere ranged between 380 to 450 parts per million. As a result, the average global temperature was 3.80 C (70 F) warmer than in the modern pre-industrial period and sea level was about 80 feet higher than today. There has also been a significant increase in methane in the atmosphere. While methane is more rare than carbon dioxide, it is also a much more potent greenhouse gas. Increased levels of methane were attributed to an expansion of livestock ranching in areas that had once been rainforest and the decomposition of organic material, some of which had been trapped in melting permafrost.
Following the Biden Summit, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres held a press conference where he presented the “State of the Global Climate in 2020 Report.” It was not a hopeful report. In Guterres words, “This is a frightening report . . . We are on the verge of the abyss,” and to avert a climate catastrophe “We are way off track.”
According to the report:
The six years since 2015 have been the hottest on record. In June, temperatures reached 38 degrees Celsius at Verkhoyansk in Russia, the highest recorded temperature anywhere north of the Arctic Circle. Concentrations of the major greenhouse gases continued to climb. Carbon dioxide concentrations rose to a new high -- 410.5 parts per million. That is a 148 per cent increase above pre-industrial levels. The number of tropical cyclones globally was above average in 2020. There were 98 named tropical storms. This was mostly driven by high activity in the North Atlantic, which had more than double the long-term average and an absolute record. Widespread drought in the United States drove the largest wildfires ever recorded in California and Colorado. In Brazil, drought fuelled serious wildfires in the Pantanal wetlands. In the Arctic, the annual minimum sea-ice extent in September 2020 was the second lowest on record. The Greenland ice sheet lost 152 billion metric tonnes of ice from September 2019 to August 2020. Antarctica’s loss of ice also increased. And consequently, the rate of sea-level rise is accelerating.
While he outlined some positive advances, Guterres warned “This must be the year for action – the make it or break it year . . . This is truly a pivotal year for humanity’s future. This report shows we have no time to waste. Climate disruption is here. I urge everyone to take the message of this report to heart. Let us all commit to act to stabilize our climate and to end our war on nature.”
Unfortunately, too many country’s that participated in the Leaders Summit on Climate are not taking Guterres’ message and the climate report to heart in this “make it or break it year.”
Follow Alan Singer on twitter at https://twitter.com/AlanJSinger1.