All of society, all of the world

I used this space last week to explore some of the key issues for the Caribbean at COP27 which closes in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt on Saturday, describing some of them as required “reality checks.”

One is the unreliability of financial flows to support adaptation measures in the developing world, and the other critical one is the fact that the 1.5-degree threshold for global warming appears increasingly difficult to achieve.

The truth is, what we are attending to is a global phenomenon that requires multiple hands at work simultaneously and with an eye on the same objectives.

The implications for some key features of the planet are serious and far-reaching. Our natural environment, including plant and animal life, is already undergoing change through diminished biological diversity and the incursions of invasive species, among other impacts.

This, in turn, will have effects on already acknowledged food insecurity and the long list of dependent economic activities such as tourism, upon which most of our countries rely.

Extreme weather events also do not only mean heavier than average spells of rainfall, but a rising incidence of dry spells. In our region, there are already acknowledged water-scarce and challenged states.

We already know that even with heavy rainfall, water quality issues and their attendant costs pose serious issues for the availability of potable water.

Our very model of infrastructure-led development may also find itself confronting strong hurdles as the decarbonisation process worldwide slows some areas of productive endeavour.

It has also long been recognised that the small island and low-lying coastal developing states of the world require far more urgent decision-making and change on this matter.

I argued here last week that the real engine room at COPs comprises politicians, official negotiators, and a cadre of eminent scientists, both from our regions and of the Global North.

It is good that the civil society space is typically occupied and active at these events, but there is not much evidence that such activism has been effective in influencing the desired change, nor has it grown sufficiently to harness much broader, enlightened public opinion.

Had that been the case, our political parties in the Caribbean would have made the climate crisis (and it is a “crisis”) focal points of their recent election campaigns, and the issue would have framed a considerable cross-section of the parliamentary discourse.

Arguments and cross-talk about the incidence of extreme weather events would have included even passing mention of the phenomenon, and when it did, explanations of the distinction between climate and weather proffered.

We have already experienced 1.3 degree growth in global temperature – most of it at the hands of human activity. Even the most ardent flat-earther devotees have backed away from their earlier opposition to a notion of an anthropogenic connection.

It would be equally sensible though to heed the warnings that the 1.5-degree threshold seems set to be breached. Projected impacts on human populations, even at 1.5, appear dim.

This has real implications for how we undertake the develop assignment. This includes greater reliance on science, data-driven decision making, and broader alliances of civic elements.

Apart from the usual NGO suspects, who expected anything to emerge from sectors including construction, local government, law, energy, tourism, food production ahead of COP27?

Hopefully, someone will remind me of a spectacular submission from any of them.

Contrastingly, some of us in the reviled media have worked over many years to ensure that our coverage of the climate change challenge is founded on the available science and best practice policy responses.

In 2005, the Association of Caribbean Media Workers, together with Caricom’s Mainstreaming Adaptation to Climate Change (MACC) Project launched a handbook for journalists on the subject.

Then, in 2021, we introduced “Reporting the Climate Crisis - A Handbook for Caribbean Journalists” which I co-authored together with scientists Steve Maximay and Dr Dale Rankine.

Some of our better environmental reporters have been at Sharm El-Sheikh. I look forward to their comprehensive evaluations of the proceedings.

They would hopefully include the prospects for an all of society, all of world approach. Some of us need the reassurance that opportunities exist to achieve this.