Climate Change is a Class Issue
By: Paris Marx
Tags: Climate Change, Equality, Future, Politics, World

Climate Change is a Class Issue

We’re not all in this together

On October 8, 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change put out its latest report, outlining the climate effects of 1.5ºC and 2ºC warming, the efforts that will have to be taken for us to hit those targets, and how current emissions-reduction pledges get us nowhere near where we need to be. But it also woke the world up to the need to act — at least for a week or two.

The report outlined how our transportation, land-use, building, energy, food, and other systems need to be redesigned from the ground up to reduce emissions and prepare for a warmer world. We have just 12 years to slash emissions by 45 percent below 2010 levels and hit net zero by 2050 if we’re to have a chance at keeping warming below 1.5ºC. An infographic from the World Resources Institute effectively outlines the difference between 1.5ºC and 2ºC, and, quite honestly, the 1.5ºC scenario looks scary enough — I don’t know why we’d want to risk hitting 2ºC or higher. Yet, the reaction to the report makes it seem like that’s exactly where we’re headed.

Infographic via WRI

The media, which usually does a terrible job at covering climate change, at least put some climate stories on its front page in response to the report before turning its attention back to the Trump reality show that so effectively brings in ad money and eyeballs. For a few days, people at least pretended to care, but what really changed? Not a whole lot.

No governments made significant policy shifts in response to the report, which said that current pledges have us heading for upwards of 3.2ºC of warming, and that’s if countries hold to them — the United States has already pulled out of the Paris Agreement and Brazil may be about to do the same. I’m tempted to descend into despair at this point, but let’s try to remain hopeful. There’s a reason not enough is being done, and identifying the root of the problem could help us to address it.

Western Countries Trying to Shirk Responsibility

We’re often told that climate change is an issue that will affect all of humanity; that our collective future is under threat the more the world warms. But is that really true? Are we all going to be affected in the same way as the mercury soars? Of course not.

If the effects of climate change were going to be equally distributed, we’d be doing a lot more about it. The truth is that geography and income make a huge difference to how severe the impacts of climate change will be, and that explains why so little is being done.

Even though there will undoubtedly be impacts across high-income Western countries, the brunt of the pain will be felt by those living in poorer nations across the world that don’t have the infrastructure or the means to adapt to climate change, and may be either low-lying or at risk of greater desertification as sea levels rise and temperatures increase.

Yet, outside parts of Europe, Western countries aren’t doing nearly enough to reduce emissions. It’s not uncommon to hear conservative politicians or people associated with resources industries in Canada or Australia argue that they contribute a small percentage of global emissions so it’s okay if they don’t cut their emissions as much as the United States and China — with emphasis on the latter.

But that argument fails to account for the true responsibility for climate change — both from historical and per-capita perspectives. Those in the West who don’t want to cut emissions, or at least not quickly, love to point the finger at China — now the world’s largest emitter — to argue the People’s Republic isn’t doing nearly enough. However, instead of looking at China — which is installing record amounts of renewable energy and whose investments in solar panels and electric buses are making them cheaper for the rest of the world — they should be accepting their own responsibility and leading the way.

Carbon emissions are not new; countries have been increasing their use of fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution, and as a result some countries have emitted a lot more of the carbon budget than others. China may be emitting a lot today, but historically they’re responsible for a much smaller relative percentage of those emissions, while the West has emitted a much larger chunk.