Contradictions and utility

WHILE IT MAY NOT DELIVER PARIS TARGETS, IN ITS ABSENCE WE MAY SEE A TEMPERATURE RISE OF 3°C OR MORE

- SOMIT DASGUPTA

AFTER MORE THAN 30 years since the signing of the Rio agreement (1992), more than 18 years of the signing of the Kyoto Protocol (1997) and 10 years of rejoicing the Paris Agreement (PA) of 2015, we seem to have gone in reverse gear. It’s not just dilution of the responsibility of the developed nations who have contributed to this climate mess, but it’s the entire movement which is at peril today.

At the centre of the storm is one country, the biggest cumulative polluter which everyone knows, that is the US. Perhaps, it would be wrong to say one country since it is the most important person in that country who terms the climate movement as a “hoax”. The Trump administration has pulled out of the PA twice, once in 2017 and again in 2025, which has caused considerable damage and has encouraged the fence sitters as well as the huge fossil fuel lobby. In fact the US administration today seems to be driven by the oil lobby and phrases like “drill, baby drill” is nothing but a slap on the human suffering from climate change calamities, especially the poor and those residing in the small island states.