An unusual feature of climate change science is the fact that fossil fuel companies such as Exxon were among the first entities to study climate change, how human activities accelerate it and what the ultimate cost for the world would be. Indeed Exxon carried out the research, as a company should, into its product and the factors that would determine for how long and at what cost they could continue feeding the never-ending thirst for fossil fuels. Before Exxon became the face of corporate climate change denial, it was a leading factor in advancing our understanding of the greatest crisis that humanity has faced so far. Since then, Exxon has, once again, come around to admitting the reality of climate change to its investors. Although it must be noted that Exxon is still very much against any reasonable disinvestment in fossil fuels, calling such ideas as being out of touch with reality.
The point of narrating Exxon's ever-changing relationship with climate change science is to demonstrate that humanity has ignored its own good sense and science for far too long for compulsions that it claims to have no control over. Grim tidings of climate change and all its apocalyptic visions have been a mainstay feature of news media for some time now. This column has also focused on the inevitable nature of climate change and the continuing importance of the global effort to combat it. But if the latest UN climate summit was any indication, the days of actionable climate change control plans are still far out of sight. On the occasion, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on every country to declare a "climate emergency". This was very much in tone with his consistent messaging on climate change and the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic being a dress-rehearsal for the disasters of climate change. Sadly, as many commentators noted, his urgency was not largely shared by representatives of other nations who, at best, offered incremental changes or promises of potentially bold future plans. The tepid response was contrasted with warnings from the scientific community regarding the many varied fallouts of an escalating climate crisis — increasing forest fires, melting ice glaciers, etc.
At such a time, theory and future promises mean little and we are all already approaching a tipping point beyond which there may be no way back as climate change runs out of control. The tragedy of the existing Paris climate accord is that even the many modest and unambitious goals that were set by the signatories are nowhere close to fulfilment. All the same, it has been optimistically noted that the Paris accord is stronger now than it ever was before, with nations representing 65 per cent of global emissions now committed to some degree of net-zero and carbon neutrality planning. With the expected return of the USA to the fold under Joe Biden, the effort may well be reaching a milestone of at least being a functional platform to discuss the situation and the solutions. But so long as major emitters refuse to acknowledge the problem in all its dimensions, the situation may not move forward. Take the example of Australia, a major emitter that is on the receiving end of some of the most extreme climate change fall out with raging forest fires and now urgent fears of floods. Australia's pledge lacked the ambition to such an extent that it was not even chosen to speak at the virtual conference. While the Australian Government has acknowledged climate change and its devastation, it has steered clear of assigning any blame on man-made and specifically industrial and mining activities. Such refusal to course-correct is not specific to a group of nations. Guterres noted that the pandemic recovery packages of G20 nations have by and large gave 50 per cent more stimulus to sectors linked to fossil fuels in comparison to cleaner energy sources. This was a wasted opportunity to chart a new course at a time when we still have options and leg-space for implementation. The future generations are unlikely to regard inaction at such a time as a sign of prudency.