On the occasion of the opening of the COP26 Sunday, October 31, in Glasgow, Scotland, the photographer and environmentalist Yann Arthus-Bertrand expresses his skepticism about the effectiveness of these summits. In his speech at the closing of the G20 on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron was more optimistic and praised the G20’s progress on climate issues.
franceinfo: Are there reasons to hope for progress on the climate, as Emmanuel Macron said this Sunday?
Yann Arthus-Bertrand: You know, I attended the first COP in Rio in 1992 and every year they say it’s going to be the most important. Honestly, the COPs are useless at all except to publicize disasters and what to do. Politicians are led by voters, as long as we do not, all together, want to move, they will not be able to move.
So is there nothing to be hoped for from this COP?
Yes. There are decisions to be made, but all the decisions we are going to take will only have effects in 20 years. The climate that we had for 10,000 years, on which our civilization was based, is gone forever, it will never come back, that’s what all scientists say. I find that the speeches of politicians are not commensurate with the catastrophes announced. All these big COPs are like co-owner meetings where everyone pulls the blanket towards themselves but at the end of the day nobody wants carbon-free growth or at least growth – which is extremely complicated. So everyone is going to sign treaties when they come back to show their constituents that we have done something, but basically, we’ve been doing nothing for 20 or 30 years.
When I made my movie Home, I thought we were going to change, there was Al Gore who had arrived and who won the Nobel Prize, we were consuming 90 million barrels of oil a day. Today we consume 100 million. All the renewable energies that we have put in place have been added to that. Which means that we are completely incoherent. We do exactly the opposite of what we should do. When there is the march for the climate in Paris, we are 40,000, when there is the march against the health pass there are 200,000 people who will demonstrate in France and when there is the World Cup we will be 2 million in the streets. When we will be 2 million walking in the street, not for the climate, but for our life, for the life of our children, our grandchildren, maybe then the world will change.
The solution comes from citizens and our daily actions?
We are the ones who elect the policies, we are the ones who decide, with decisions like the carbon tax which we did not want, everyone was in the street, we stopped. We have to be courageous enough to accept decisions which will not please us but which are there to save the planet. The rising price of fuel is unfortunately very good for the environment. Now there are compensations to be made for people who cannot afford enough. But the oil has to be much more expensive because this carbon is killing us, killing our lives. Scientists speak of the sixth extinction, which means the end of life on Earth. It is dramatic and we are incapable of reacting. Of course we need COPs, of course we need Greta but unfortunately it will be much more complicated than we think.
Are you going to attend this COP26?
Yeah, I’m lucky that Sting did the voice of Legacy, the film we just made, we have a screening with Prince Charles and his family and a screening for the COP. I’m delighted because it’s a film – it’s brave enough to do it – where they say that COPs are useless.