COP copout

Another COP talkfest and another copout. From where I am standing the result was a foregone conclusion. If the use of fossil fuels is the prime cause of droughts/ floods/megastorms then this conference wasn’t going to turn the ship around. Although the technology exists to start the mitigation process the political will and, more importantly, the will of the general population to seriously attack the issue is not exactly thick on the ground.

The resistance of the developed nations to paying for their largess is to be expected. Most of them are probably technically bankrupt as they have piled up so much debt they are already in trouble paying it back, let alone trying to fill the ‘‘loss and damage’’ black hole. Unnecessary wars and inflation aren’t helping. So what have we ended up with? A shiny group of new ambulances at the bottom of the climate change cliff each with an empty begging bowl in front and bereft of drivers/paramedics. Weren’t these COP conferences meant to be erecting fences at the top?

Our dithering has gotten us to the point where multiple 100 year events occur within a year, droughts are already measured in years, Arctic ice, including Greenland, is melting away and the greenhouse gases continue to increase year by year, almost certainly condemning the most affected nations to their inevitable fate. Our report card surely has the comment, ‘‘Could do better’’.

Geoff Orchard, Ohaupo