Countries lobbying to weaken UN climate recommendations - expert comment
Dr Tom Pettinger, Research Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Studies, said:
"The news that Australia and other countries are lobbying to weaken UN climate recommendations reiterates how devastatingly far the world is from climate justice. Often forgotten is that 150,000 people already die every year from climate change related issues, with most of these in the Global South. There are profound injustices built into current systems of consumption, and these injustices will only be exacerbated if the more wealthy nations ravage the earth and its life support systems, through our reliance on fossil fuels and excess.
"The recent IPCC report, outlining the precarity of the earth's ecosystems, should cause the UK Government hosting COP26 to take the lead with some sobriety. Yet rather than encouraging other nations to consider climate change seriously, the UK Government is enabling fossil fuel expansion, is set to re-ratify the Energy Charter Treaty, and - as happened yesterday - is rescinding key reports that are candid about the scale of the changes needed.
"Yet another COP threatens to be yet another performance of hand-wringing, as the rate of climate destruction escalates."
21 October 2021
READ: Dr Pettinger asks why people in the UK remain largely nonchalant about the problem of climate change in this piece for The Conversation UK.