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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/29/climate-is-our-biggest-war-warns-ceo-of-cop30-ahead-of-un-summit-in-brazil>
"“Climate is our biggest war. Climate is here for the next 100 years. We need
to focus and … not allow those [other] wars to take our attention away from the
bigger fight that we need to have.”
Ana Toni, the chief executive of Cop30, the UN climate summit to be held in
Brazil this November, is worried. With only four months before the crucial
global summit, the world’s response to the climate crisis is in limbo.
Fewer than 30 of the 200 countries that will gather in the Amazonian city of
Belém have drafted plans, required by the 2015 Paris agreement, to stave off
the worst ravages of climate breakdown.
And that crisis is escalating. In the last two years, for the first time,
global land temperatures soared to more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels –
breaching the limit that governments have promised at multiple climate meetings
to keep.
Meanwhile, the US president, Donald Trump, has withdrawn from the Paris
agreement and is intent on expanding fossil fuels and dismantling
carbon-cutting efforts. The EU is mired in tense arguments over its plans.
China, the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, is rumoured to be
considering weak targets that would condemn the world to much greater heating.
And the attention of world leaders is elsewhere, as the conflict in the Middle
East threatens to spiral further. Poor countries are labouring under a mountain
of debt, and the continuing cost of living crisis in many countries is fuelling
populism and a backlash against green policy.
Toni, a respected Brazilian economist, told the Guardian: “There’s no doubt
that the wars that we’ve seen – military wars and trade wars … are very
damaging – physically, economically, socially – and they divert the direction
and the attention from climate.”
Vulnerable countries fear their concerns will be lost amid the push for
militarisation. “Spending more on defence means spending less on climate,” said
Michai Robertson, adviser to the Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis).
But the questions for Belém cannot be ignored. Can the world cut greenhouse gas
emissions far enough and fast enough to stabilise global temperatures? Is the
lack of progress inevitable when hundreds of countries are trying to agree a
way forward, or are more sinister forces at play, trying to throw up
roadblocks? Has a recent meeting in Bonn done anything to bring more resolution
and collaboration?"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
