It would appear that the recent climate change conference in Madrid got bogged down in negotiation and as a result failed to ramp up emission reductions in the way that was intended.
The Paris climate agreement was specifically designed to have emission reduction targets increasing over time (initial promises were a great first step). The faster we cut our carbon emissions the easier life will be for the human race in the long term. As such it is a problem that once again one of these conferences occurred and rather than managing to make the big decisions, the nitty gritty ended up being the main part of it and the whole conference was bogged down in argument. All this arguing is over how the Paris agreement is to be implemented.Â
The planet is warming fast and if we do not do something about it soon it will be too late. Unfortunately and all the debating this urgency is lost. All the coal-fired power plants around the world that are planned would have enough carbon to get us over what we can afford.
While the UK put forwards one of the most extreme targets of reaching zero emissions by 2050, it’s plans were branded insufficient for the simple reason that they had no idea how they were going to get there. Looking at the Conservatives and labour policies in this general election this study made it clear that only labour would come anywhere close to do enough to meet our obligations- given the likelihood of a labour majority, I hope that the Conservatives will start look at this with more urgency in the near future- they have talked about good objectives, but these have so far dissolved when faced with the smallest of challenge (and with the concentration stuck on Brexit for the foreseeable future, this will not change soon).
