The climate crisis calls for changes that will not happen without vigorous government action that is still overdue. Only 18% of companies believe that governments are giving them the clear indications they need to meet the target of maximum global warming of 1.5 ° C that the world has set, a poll in Levee de France reported. curtain of COP26, in Glasgow.
Conducted with 1,100 CEOs of large companies by the consulting firm Accenture and the United Nations, the survey shows that only in Asia (34%) where executives might be be a little less vague, unlike Europe (14%) or North America (13%). Companies used to say that the required technologies were not ripe or that investors and markets were not ready to follow them in this transition, but all that is no longer true today, argued. Peter Lacy, of Accenture. “What has not changed is the urgency of the situation. Governments must act, CEOs are ready to do more. “
Much more will have to be done. If we only had to rely on the commitments made voluntarily so far by all listed companies, the planet was heading towards a warming of at least 3 ° C, recently estimated the experts of the Net Zero Tracker.
The fact that several of these companies are lending themselves, in parallel, to intense lobbying campaigns to discourage the public authorities from tightening their environmental rules does not help, noted Thursday the Financial Times.
The inevitable change of direction
Governments will not remain so timorous in the face of the climate threat forever, assured experts last month of the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), an initiative carried out in partnership with the United Nations and bringing together just under 4,000 financial players, who represent $ 121 trillion in assets.
Caught up, it is said, “by the reality of climate change”, governments will soon be brutally “awakened” and forced to get down to business by immense “environmental, social and economic pressures”. [qui sont] fueled by fears about national security, created by technological advances and increasingly exercised by voters and businesses ”.
Two years ago, our experts predicted that this “inevitable political response” to the climate change crisis would occur between 2023 and 2025 and urged companies to begin their transition immediately to mitigate the shock. Today, they are talking about 2025, while admitting that this awakening will probably not do better than limit global warming to 2 ° C.
Signs of this revival of governments in Glasgow have been sought for the past two weeks. Several leaders and several experts were delighted to see the two largest emitters of GHGs, China and the United States, promise to collaborate in the face of the “existential issue” of climate change. Several countries have also pledged to do more in terms of reducing methane emissions, adopting electric cars and stopping funding for fossil energy projects abroad.
As of this writing, the parties were in the final sprint of a negotiation that looked set to drag beyond the end of the conference, scheduled for Friday. A sign that we sometimes start from very far, we were not yet sure if the final declaration would include a commitment on the exit of coal or the end of some 5,000 billion in subsidies allocated annually to the fossil fuel industry.
On Thursday, experts from the Climate Action Tracker estimated the planet was heading for a warming of around 2.7 ° C if one took into account only the policies and actions officially announced by governments, of 2.4 ° C. if we add the targets they have set for the end of the decade, and 1.8 ° C if we believe all their promises, including that of achieving carbon neutrality. Analyzed in September, the case of Canada was even worse if we only took into account the officially announced measures: the trajectory would be consistent with a warming of 4 ° C.
The moment “oh m…! “
“I am divided,” climatologist Peter Stott told the British daily on Thursday. The Guardian. “I’m relieved that things have started to move, but I worry how slow they are. ”
Humanity and its governments still have not had their epiphany, where they will say “oh shit! Suddenly realizing the magnitude of the costs of climate change, said her colleague Katherine Hayhoe. “We haven’t gotten to that ‘oh shit!’ Moment yet, but it’s coming. “