Pessimism in parliament

Last week’s meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Climate Change confirmed my current pessimism. Organised by leading development charity Practical Action on 12 October the meeting focused on the importance of adaptation in a ‘four degree future’.

Speakers from a variety of think-tanks and development organisations explained what was needed (essentially the Lifeboat scenario) and noted that the UN process is not on track to deliver it.

So far as I can see the climate change policies of the developed and some developing nations may be summarised as follows:

Mitigation

• We will set greenhouse gas emissions targets that are not strict enough to avoid catastrophic climate change.
• We will fail to meet those targets.

Adaptation

• We will promise the poorest countries the money to adapt to the climate change we are causing.
• We will set the amounts at less than is needed to adapt.
• We will fail to provide the amounts we promise, and
• We will call much of its loans and later demand repayment.

Mechanisms

• We will promise to provide adaptation funds from the Carbon Trading market
• We will cheat in allocating quotas.