G7 Ministers Environmental Agreement
A few weeks ago there was a meeting of the G7 ministers to discuss environmental issues and they reached agreements that could be hopeful.
It was an online meeting and ministers from the USA, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy and Japan gathered, but unfortunately China, which is one of the largest involved in environmental issues, did not attend.
The most important thing about this meeting was the will expressed by all of them to stay within the objectives of the Paris Agreement so that the world temperature does not exceed 1.5ºC, which today are the most ambitious objectives and of which (also it must be said) we are very far away.
Within the agreements reached, they decided that by the end of this year 2021 they would stop financing projects for coal-fired power plants. Something that until now the world’s largest banks did (and still do).
This is the main turning point, because until now these countries supported and financed all kinds of projects based on fossil fuels, and the question that arises is: Are they really going to change?
I believe that this step is essential for international financial organizations to change their “chip” and decide to support and finance new non-polluting energy projects.
The “problem” of this meeting is that China did not participate, and it is the country that pollutes the most and that supports and finances the construction of new coal plants around the world.
Wanting to reduce global pollution without counting on China I think is unfeasible, and perhaps Western countries should consider demanding from others what they demand of themselves, and limit the purchase of products that have been manufactured with polluting energy and means.
If we really want not to exceed 1.5ºC, all the experts indicate that urgent decisions must be taken and many of the objectives that were initially set for 2050 must be achieved by 2030.
Sometimes news like this appears that goes in the right direction, but other times the opposite happens.
The underlying problem is that our society does not see climate change as a SERIOUS PROBLEM, and is not convinced of the absolute need we have to change the way we live and consume.
Now that it seems that we are starting to get out of Covid-19, the vast majority of people are wanting to go back to “the old habits” without thinking about what is to come.
I think our political leaders are very much to blame for this, since they do nothing to raise awareness; they prefer to have their citizens in the sweet dream of ignorance and so they continue to vote for them.
