This Monday, Fabrice Grosfilley in his editorial urges Antonio Guterres’ speech and the climate issue.
“Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish. It’s either a climate solidarity pact or a suicide pact”. These are the particularly strong remarks that Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, made again at the opening of the Charn-el-Sheikh climate summit.
We must recognize at least one merit in Antonio Guterres, namely being constant and proactive on the climate issue. The UN Secretary General has adopted a resolute offensive message. Resolutely alarmist or pessimistic would even say its opponents. Using the theme of suicide, Antonio Guterres sends us directly back to the idea of death and the end of humanity. A death for which we could be collectively responsible “We are heading towards climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator “.
These strong words from the head of the UN are obviously intended to put pressure on the leaders who are going to this summit in Sharm-el-Sheikh tonight or in the coming days. With the big question of the efforts to be distributed. That this climate conference takes place on the African continent is not anecdotal. This Sharm-el-Sheikh summit should be an opportunity for poor countries to remind rich countries of their responsibilities and their funding pledges. “ The US and China really need to be there” Emmanuel Macron explained today and believed that Europeans are “the only ones who pay » and that it is necessary “to put pressure on non-European rich countries », Tell them “you must pay your share ».
We will talk a lot about money in the next few days in Egypt. With colossal sums, which must aim to help the countries of the South to develop without going through the box of fossil fuels. With this paradox, as if we are aware of doing without these energies and entering a transition course, many countries in the South will try to develop by directly resorting to renewable energies. You have to skip a step somehow. But there can be no question of them staying at the foot of the stairs.
The other major funding issue concerns the consequences of global warming. Hurricanes, floods, rising waters, droughts and fires affect us all, their consequences are even more dramatic in the developing world. We are eight billion people on earth. Failure to ensure decent living conditions for all means exposing yourself to more tensions, wars and mass migrations.
If the countries of the South look at us with an accusing air, it is because we have not, despite all these protocols, all these agreements, despite these 26 climate conferences from the past, we have not really taken the effort that awaits us . if we really want to turn things around. Admittedly, solar cell and wind power have been developed. We spent colossal sums on this. But in reality, we have not concretely reduced our consumption of fossil fuels.
The green energy boom has actually served to support our ever-increasing demand for energy. But we have not exactly reduced our consumption of oil, gas, coal. According to the International Energy Agency, it will take until 2035 before global demand begins to decline. The queues of motorists in front of gas stations in France a few weeks ago. Our anguish over the prices of energy, super unleaded, diesel or town gas is particularly revealing and quite depressing. There has been talk of getting rid of fossil fuels for 20 years. And we’re still not ready.
■ An editorial by Fabrice Grosfilley
