Make climate change a voting issue

For a minuscule virus, we saw everyone converging to solve the problem but for an equally minuscule molecule whose quantum is increasing by the minute, we seem to be shying away, unwilling to cooperate or act. Why?

Climate change is besieged with two problems:

The first is that this tiny CO2 molecule can be generated anywhere but does not necessarily stay there. It travels and mixes in the air and therefore its geographical impact gets dissociated from its cause. People who are responsible for generating it do not suffer more than people who have not played any role in its proliferation, which thus causes the perpetrators to behave irrationally.

Rich or developed countries that have historically been responsible for most of the CO2 that is already there in the atmosphere have benefited tremendously from their excesses. Energy or let us be specific, fossil fuels have been the bedrock of development for the rich economies and it is through the unbridled use of this energy that they have been able to provide a good lifestyle to their people.

To their credit they have now recognized the problem and many of them are taking steps to curtail further emissions. Some of them have declared carbon austerity and they want everyone to join this bandwagon; poor countries included.

The poor countries, many of whom are now beginning to grow and develop, however, need energy for growth, and the cheapest and quickest source available is fossil fuels.

So, they do not have any incentive to participate in this austerity, especially knowing that the CO2 molecules that they shed will anyway mix in the air and travel far and wide, thus ensuring that there is no specific local impact. When my bad actions don’t punish just me but everyone else as well, I am less incentivized to mend my ways. Everyone becomes a free rider!

The second problem with climate is that there is a time lag between action and results. If we start taking action today to reduce our emissions (as in some cases, we have) the results will show up much later. Perhaps, after people have forgotten whoever took those steps. This is a really big problem.

Unfortunately, our countries are run by politicians. Politicians thrive by creating a perception that they are doing a lot for their people. They like to give out benefits whose costs they do not have to incur today. However, when it comes to climate, the order is reversed.

The costs for curbing emissions have to be incurred today, whereas the benefits in terms of reduced global warming will be seen many years later, in some cases, after the present-day politicians are long gone.

There is therefore no incentive for our politicians to waste their time and resources on climate. They would rather focus their time, energy, and public funds on things that can make them look good today and help win the next election. 

Unless people get convinced that climate change is real and that it will impact their and their progeny’s health and welfare, and convert this conviction into a movement that creates pressure on the politicians, the politicians will not act. We need to make it a voting and an election issue. Only then, you will see politicians do the right things and promulgate the right policies, be it building in swamps, heavy penalties for kaveera use etc.

To be fair to our politicians, in our globalized world, it’s not only the CO2 molecules that travel everywhere but also the news. This makes life difficult for our politicians. Imagine a developed country where a local Governor orders the closure of a single-use plastics/kareera plant because it is causing global warming. He is booed by the locals as many of their country-cousins will lose their jobs. The same day, in a developing country a government minister inaugurates a new single-use plastics/kaveera plant and is cheered by the local people for improving their lives. Both news are shown on TV and are doing the rounds on the internet. How do you explain this to the man who has lost his job because he will question why you closed our plant when new ones are still being built elsewhere? It’s a tough explanation to give for the politician whose people are losing jobs. 

The solution lies in developed countries agreeing to pay a price for their past sins and making sure that they create a fund or offer technical and financial assistance to developing countries to abandon fossil fuels and instead produce energy from renewable sources. 

Mr Phillip Kimumwe, Environmentalist