Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Day after day, news reports depict how extreme heatwaves, floods, drought, and fires are indiscriminately ravaging continents, causing havoc, losses, damage, and tragedy, and fueling a sense of despair among affected communities. Yet, the IMF response to this crisis has so far been muted.
National sovereignty is here to stay, but a new worldview grounded in ecological realism could help close the distance between the political and natural worlds.
The agreement on a new loss and damage fund is one of the summit’s bright spots, but more needs to be done to deliver the trillions of dollars needed to finance the low-carbon transition.
It’s easy to get caught up on how climate change affects everything from Germany-Italy bond spreads to efforts to reach NATO’s defense spending targets.
Billions were allocated to help countries fight Covid – the same must be done for climate action.
A more disciplined demagogue would have succeeded in destroying Brazilian democracy.
Countries responsible for higher gas emissions are stuck in an economic model that does not allow for peaceful and constructive climate conversations. To deliver on the climate transition and to avoid further conflict, decarbonization should not be used as a tool to redesign the global balance of power.
Lula has campaigned on the promise to bring deforestation levels in the Amazon down to zero. The question is whether he can in fact deliver. Brazil has developed an addiction to deforestation. In order to break it, the incoming president will have to muster all the support he can find.
As world leaders gather this week in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for this year’s UN Climate Change Conference, known as COP27, they confront a global effort to respond to climate change that is going off the rails.
“We have to be very clear-eyed about what is feasible, politically and socially.”