The European Union has always foreseen that Europe, the most fertile continent and the model for the contemporary world, will be devastated and shattered by climate change. Today we are entrusted with a fight against climate change and our starting point should be that this battle can and must be won – Yes we can!
We are living in a world that doesn’t lack the economic resources or the technological and scientific abilities to act, hence if we fail to put a stop to climate change it will be because we were unable to promote the political determination to cooperate and work together. If this happens, it would symbolise not just a malfunction of political thoughts and management, but a moral failure on a scale unparalleled in history.
During the 20th century, collapses of political leadership led to two world wars and millions of people paid a high price for what I can depict as an unnecessary catastrophe. Dangerous climate change is the avoidable catastrophe of the 21st century. Future generations will pass an unforgiving judgment on a generation that looked at the evidence and facts on climate change, understood the cost and then sustained on a course that relegated millions of the world’s most defenceless people to poverty and exposed future generations to the jeopardy of ecological blow.
We can’t trounce the reality we are living in, as global warming is the best proof that we are overfilling the carrying capacity of the Earth’s ambiance. Stocks of greenhouse gases that trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere are accumulating at an extraordinary tempo as existing concentrations have reached 380 parts per million of carbon dioxide comparable (CO2e) exceeding the natural range of the last 650,000 years. In the course of the 21st century, average global temperatures could boost by more than 5°C.
It is significant to underline that climate change provides an effective memento of the one thing that we share in common, which is called planet Earth. All nations and all people share the same atmosphere and we only have one atmosphere. We are irresponsibly mismanaging our ecological interdependence and our generation is running up an unsound ecological debt that future generations will eventually take over.
An important component of the climate change challenge that one should highlight is its global scale. The Earth’s atmosphere doesn’t make a distinction of greenhouse gases by country of origin. One tonne of greenhouse gases from China carries the same weight as one tonne of greenhouse gases from the United States — and one country’s emissions are another country’s climate change problem. Hence my point is that no one country can win the battle against this phenomena acting alone because collective action is not an option or a choice but a necessity.
Malta is addressing this particular problem but it’s never enough to tackle a worldwide difficulty like this. Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi already stated before the election that the environment will be one of the most important issues for his new government and he is clearly fulfilling his duty in this regard, both in Malta and at an international level. A few weeks ago, during the launch of the Union for the Mediterranean, Dr Gonzi had appealed to all the Mediterranean neighbours to work in harmony to tackle this important environmental hurdle. Additionally, Dr Gonzi pointed out how our region can be a testing ground for new technologies that will help us switch to a low-carbon future while improving our economic well-being. Bolstered by new approaches of leaders like Dr Gonzi and others around the globe, the issue of climate change is becoming ever more attainable.
If the world takes action now, then it will be possible, maybe, to keep 21st Century global temperature rise within a 2°C threshold on top of pre-industrial levels. If today’s generation is capable to achieve this, the future will still call for a high level of leadership and matchless international cooperation. However climate change is a warning and threat that comes with an opportunity. Above all, it provides an opening for the world to come mutually in forging a communal response to an emergency that threatens to cut short our progress.
Maybe it is still early to comprehend the repercussions and the consequences of such problem. But on the other hand, many countries, particularly the most week developing nations, are in need of aid in humanising their capacity to adapt to this situation. Conversely a push to create new technologies for skirmishing climate change is also needed to make existing renewable technologies economically practical, and to endorse a speedy dispersion of technology.
In actual fact this crisis is frightening the entire human family but on a positive note it also provided an opportunity to come together as one and build a collective response to a global problem. I am sure that it is everyone’s wish, not just mine, to rise as one and face this challenge which ultimately leaves an enhanced world for future generations.
David Casa is a Nationalist MEP
[email protected]
www.davidcasa.eu