Another climate disappointment?

For the third time in two months, international delegates from almost 200 countries are meeting to discuss and try to take action on yet another issue critical to the survival of planet Earth and its 8-billion people. The current Conference which opened in the capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, on Monday, December 2, is being held under the auspices of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and will focus on ways to preserve the land and protect it from drought.

It follows in the footsteps of the just concluded UN conference on plastics in South Korea, and before it, the grand Conference of Parties (COP29) on climate change last month in Baku, Azerbaijan. The holding of three such global conferences in succession indicates that the international community considers these related matters of critical importance which ought to be addressed by urgent measures.

Unfortunately, the outcome of the previous gatherings hardly met the lofty aspirations and hopes for a positive outcome. Yes, there have been agreements on the seriousness of the climate threat and the need for concerted action, but the deeds have not met the words.

Once more, the rich nations, under the influence of global capital, balked when it came to the issue of climate financing and the countries most affected. Underdeveloped nations like ours, have expressed disappointment with the failure to live up to commitments.

In the case of the South Korean conference, hopes were again dashed after the stubborn refusal of rich nations to agree to, and fund, programmes to reduce the production and use of plastics as well as to regulate dangerous chemicals used in their production. One delegate from a major petroleum exporting nation even cynically told the conference that it was not the production of dangerous plastic materials, it’s the use and failure to dispose which was the heart of the problem. It was like saying that it is not guns which pose a problem, but the use and abuse, an argument that we have heard many times.

Given this background, there can hardly be much hope for a positive outcome for the satisfactory funding of programmes to combat desertification. While it is true that this is a global threat, for many countries, particularly in Africa, it is a life and death matter, TODAY, not tomorrow. Hundreds of millions are currently starving to death as the land, affected by the negative climate changes, dries up before their very eyes. Even though the Caribbean is not on the same scale , the threat is no less serious.

It means that on the one hand, we must continue to work along with other developing nations to intensify the global fight for adequate resources to combat the threat, but on the home front we must step up efforts both to educate our people of the threat and to combat pollution. We are still too lax on the matter of the disposal of waste, particularly dangerous plastics. Every little bit helps and our efforts to combat pollution is one small step in a giant global march.