Focus on greed control

Policymakers love fixing symptoms instead of the root cause. From global warming and resource depletion to rising poverty and obscene income gaps, the root cause stares us in the face: unbridled greed—of individuals, corporations, and nations.

- M MUNEER

This greed has stripped the planet, exploited the poor, and left leaders morally bankrupt. As many experts remind us, there's enough in this universe for everyone, but over-exploitation is collapsing the balance. And so, every few years, the world gathers under the grand banner of climate summits like COP meetings, carbon exchanges, and trading frameworks while the real villain, greed, keeps winning.

The pitch is always predictably polished: humanity must unite to save the planet. But when the polish is scratched off, the truth of how carbon trading has become less about reducing emissions and more about building a new market for financial speculation becomes visible. Yet another money-making mechanism paraded as moral responsibility.

Here's the irony: volcanic eruptions every couple of years alter atmospheric chemistry in ways far more dramatic than human-led interventions. Nature has demonstrated its capacity for reset far better than the best-laid plans of humankind. Instead of addressing overconsumption, inequality, or unchecked corporate greed, policymakers keep inventing new financial instruments. These mechanisms conveniently allow the wealthy world to carry on as usual, outsourcing responsibility to developing nations while calling it "climate justice".

Developed nations industrialized for two centuries and belched carbon without restraint. Now, as the Global South aspires to growth, it is told to slow down, cap emissions, and buy into expensive carbon trading systems. The implicit message: "Do as we say, not as we did." Worse, the promise of "climate finance" that was supposed to flow from rich to poor countries has hardly materialized. Reports suggest that the $100-billion annual commitment made at COP15 in 2009 remains on paper, with some funds coming as loans, not grants.