The rich class, who consume the most energy, are not ready for any reduction in their standard of living. Their carelessness towards public interest remains the biggest obstacle in the way of stopping climate change.
The 29th Climate Change Conference (COP-29) of the United Nations is starting from today (11 November) in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. Although it has become clear in the past 28 years that this conference held every year is just a ritual, but this time the discussions held there will appear to be somewhat hollow. On the one hand, since the start of the Ukraine war, the dependence of the world’s major carbon emitting countries on fossil energy has increased again, while with the election of Donald Trump as President in America, the Paris Agreement related to climate change has once again come under threat. Trump does not consider climate change a man-made phenomenon. Therefore they are opposed to any measure to stop it.
During his last term as President, he withdrew America from the Paris Agreement. Even today, America is the country with the highest per capita emissions of greenhouse gases. According to scientists, America’s share in the total emissions from the beginning of the industrial era till 2022 is approximately 20 percent. Without any commitment to reduce emissions, it will be impossible to achieve the goal of limiting the Earth’s average temperature rise to 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius this century.
The reality is that the rich class of all the countries of the world are not ready for any kind of reduction in their living standards, whereas it is these classes who consume the highest per capita energy. Their carelessness towards public interest remains the biggest obstacle in the way of stopping climate change. This problem is already there, on top of that the newly created circumstances have almost taken the concern related to climate change out of the global agenda. In such a situation, it is not wrong to say that there will be a lot of concern expressed in Baku for 11 days, but there is very little chance that any solution will emerge from there. It is more likely that this event will remain just a ritual to express concerns related to climate change.