COP21: Remember When We Had Hope?

 COP21: Remember When We Had Hope?

Remember COP21?

Back in 2015, leaders from around the world gathered in Paris and told us we were going to take climate change seriously.

There was hope.

There were speeches.
There were promises.
There were targets.
There were agreements.
There were endless meetings about how we were going to save the planet.

And the big number everyone remembers?

1.5°C.

We were told we had to do everything possible to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

Ten years later, we can look back and ask a pretty simple question:

How's that going?

Well… the planet didn't get the memo.

We got more conferences.
More climate plans.
More political speeches.
More billions of dollars announced.
More pledges.
More targets for 2030, 2040 and 2050.

And somehow, despite all those promises, global greenhouse-gas emissions have continued to rise.

So forgive the sarcasm, but sometimes it feels like the greatest climate strategy ever invented was:

Hold another conference and promise to do better next time.

I don't think the people who gathered in Paris were all standing there thinking, “Let's make fools of everyone.”

I think many genuinely believed we could change course.

That's what makes it so heartbreaking.

Because there was hope.

People believed governments would actually listen to the science. They believed countries would work together. They believed leaders understood what was at stake.

And now?

What are we supposed to tell the kids?

“Don't worry. The adults had another meeting.”

“Don't worry. There's another target.”

“Don't worry. They'll announce another billion dollars.”

“Don't worry. We promised to fix it by 2050.”

Except the kids are the ones who will still be here in 2050.

They'll inherit the fires, the floods, the heat, the polluted air, the damaged ecosystems and the enormous bills for decisions they didn't make.

I'm not saying nothing has changed. Some things have.

But the gap between what we said we were going to do and what we are actually doing is enormous.

And that's the part we need to talk about.

Because climate policy shouldn't just be about announcements.

It should be about results.

So maybe it's time to stop asking:

“What are we promising?”

And start asking:

“What actually happened?”

How much was spent?

What changed?

Did emissions go down?

Did pollution go down?

Did the promised projects work?

Who benefited?

And who is going to pay for the promises that weren't kept?

Because our children deserve better than another speech.

They deserve the truth.

😪

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