THE POISON IN COP-21

SDGs Goal 13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
“You cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, you inform them and you help them understand that these resources are their own and they must protect them.” Wangari Maathai

There is a worrying trend with the average global temperature increasing by 0.50C in the last 100 years mainly as a result of high carbon dioxide levels which are about 25% higher than in the pre-industrial period. This has been a major cause of catastrophic climate change over the years and with this in mind the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change formed the Conference of Parties (COP) who meet annually to deliberate on issues relating to climate change. Over the past few years, COP have been on a negotiating process to set out guidelines and direction to enhance international climate change cooperation.

It’s that time of the year again and this time COP-21 UN Summit is being held in Paris. This is the most important edition of the COP as leaders from about 195 nations are signing the treaty containing the guidelines and direction to help in preventing global warming and reducing the effects of climate change. Unfortunately, the Conference Of Parties has always been a ‘corporate affair’ with a lot of interference from fossil industries in the policy making process. The fossil fuel industry is actually one of the largest industry contributing to almost half of the earth’s pollution. A more disturbing fact is that they are encouraged to participate in this conference regardless of the effects of their activities in the environment.
This industries always ‘green wash’ their brands and influence the policies made for their benefits. They make their presence visible as they always target sponsoring the events as a way of blinding the participants. A vivid example in the COP-21 is the Engie, Electricite de France S.A (EDF) whose operations involve use of coal which is a major pollutant and contributing factor to the Ozone layer destruction hence the climate changes. It’s a sad revelation that EDF is a host sponsor in the conference yet it is one of the industries leading to the need for formation of the set guidelines because of their excessive pollution in the environment. This gives them automatic go ahead to participate and contribute in the treaty process and this may result to them sabotaging the whole process.
The Kyoto protocol was a very good start on creating solutions to the adverse climatic changes yet it had several failures because of lack of support from More Economically Developed Countries (MEDCs). MEDCs saw it as a threat to their economic development with the large amount of toxic gasses they released in their production activities. This is a clear example of the influence Big polluters have in the creation of policies in regards to good environmental management. If allowed to be part of the COP-21 their contribution will be of more harm to environmental conservation and reducing effects of climatic changes than any good.
In a nut shell, This Big Polluters Talk the Talk but never Walk the Walk and if we don’t stop them, the climatic effects will be worse for our future generations. It’s up to all of us to stand together and KICK THE BIG POLLUTERS OUT OF CLIMATE POLICY. COP-21’s success is in our hands, the big question is ‘What are you doing about it?’