Great success for whom?
I was born in the week of Rio-92,which launched the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. At this world conference to decide what measures to take in the face of environmental degradation, a single child's speech opened news programs across the globe. It started like this: “I am fighting for my future.
Losing my future is not like losing an election or some points on the stock exchange. I am here to speak on behalf of all generations to come. ”
Sound familiar?
When I was born, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere barely exceeded 350 parts per million. All Science tells us that it is to these numbers that we have to go back if we want to have any chance of living on a planet habitable for humans and other species. 27 years. It doesn't seem that much, does it?
In these 9865 days, we managed to increase emissions in an exponential curve. The UN tells us that we have ten years to reduce global emissions by 50%, but we have not even started to do so.
This week there was a Climate Summit in New York, from which our President came out with enough confidence to say that “it was a great success”.
Great success for whom?
There were small big commitments from those to whom we left the burden of leading this struggle that belongs to all people(77 countries, which represent little in terms of emissions, committed themselves to carbon neutrality by 2050) and the countries with the highest global emissions were absent or represented by a deafening silence.
This content was originally written in Portuguese and published in Expresso
Diogo Silva
Nova SBE Alumnus, Diogo Silva is one of the Climate Strike faces in Portugal. At 27, this graduate in Economics decided to say goodbye to his job to dedicate himself to environmental activism as a volunteer. He is currently representing Climáximo.
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