The world came tantalizingly close to a major breakthrough in the fight against global warming and climate change recently, as the United Nations climate talks held in Geneva concluded with a draft plan to phase out fossil fuels over the next half-century or so.
The proposal called for countries to agree to “have ambitious climate policies in place,” by 2030, that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent, and aim to phase out the use of all fossil fuels by 2050. Talks were held between nearly 200 nations, in some of the most intensive and complex negotiations ever conducted in the UN.
At the end of the summit, a joint agreement by the countries to phase out all fossil fuel usage and replace them with renewable energies had nearly been reached. Unfortunately, progress stalled when it became clear that some countries were hesitant to commit to the proposal in its entirety, and thus failed to come to a definitive conclusion.
This is, however, a substantial step in the right direction and marks a clear shift in the global attitude towards addressing climate change. The shift may have been, in part, the result of various natural phenomena attributed to a warming climate, such as the Australian bushfires, heat waves, floods, and extreme weather, that have caused alarm in many of the world’s countries.
The adoption of such an ambitious plan has the potential to accelerate the global transition to renewable energy, help protect vulnerable populations, create jobs in renewable-energy industries, and generally improve the global outlook — both socially and environmentally.
Individually, countries have also stepped up and implemented various carbon-reduction initiatives in order to help combat climate change. These include Germany’s plan to have all of its electricity come from renewable sources by 2038; London’s new zero-emissions policy for the entire taxi and bus fleet by 2020; India’s goal to boost its solar power capacity five-fold by 2022; and the Netherlands’ ambition to have no petrol or diesel cars on the road by 2030.
It is a unanimous opinion amongst environmentalists, politicians, economists, and concerned citizens the world over that we need to transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewable sources of energy. And while the proposed UN agreement was unfortunately not adopted this time around, it does show that the world is slowly beginning to wake up and take action on the global-warming issue.