There’s been a lot of talk going around recently that climate activists have ‘lost’ the climate battle. For example, in his recent article in The Monthly, Robert Manne stated that the last few years have seen a ‘dark victory’ by climate change skeptics over climate science. Bemoaning about the failures of climate activists has become a favourite past time of many since the failure of the Copenhagen COP in 2009.
Yesterday however we saw a different perspective. The Australian Climate Commission released a new report on international climate action, which argued that whilst we are not there yet, momentum is growing on climate change action.
The release of this report opens up a really important question; have we crossed the line to the point where the path to a low-carbon economy is inevitable? In other words, is the climate movement being too pessimistic on its progress. One of the implicit things that the Climate Commission is saying is that the supposed failure of the climate movement may actually be a myth. And in many ways, I couldn’t agree more.
When we think about it, it is impossible to imagine the huge task that climate activists have assigned themselves. Climate change is the largest global problem the world has ever faced and it requires a seismic shift in the way the world operates for it to be solved. Not only that, but it is a relatively new problem; one that has only really been in the minds of the community for the past couple of decades. It requires dramatic changes and fast.
Let’s add one more factor on top of this. Climate change also requires the tearing down of some of the biggest economic powers in our society; the coal, oil and mining industries. These interests are huge, and were never going to cede their economic power lightly.
When we look at climate change like this it is impossible not to be overwhelmed with magnitude of the task climate activists have put themselves up to. It is truly massive.
Despite this however, as the Climate Commission states, massive changes are really now starting to happen in full force. For example, at the start of this year I wrote a post in the Drum on the 2011 victories of climate change. The Climate Commission report builds on these significantly. Here are some big numbers:
– 90 countries have committed to cuts in Greenhouse Gas Emissions
– 850 million people will be living in states that have carbon prices by 2013
– $257 billion was invested in renewable energy in 2011 alone
When we think about it, these numbers are big. They represent significant changes that have been hard fought. This is particularly true when we think about these numbers in the context of the fights climate activists have forced into to get action on climate change. All of these changes have come with strong resistance against them from some of the biggest economic powers in the world.
Now, I hear what you are saying, ‘this is still not good enough. These numbers don’t represent anything like the changes we need’. I agree, they aren’t good enough. A lot more needs to be done, and it is going to be hard. But the reality that we often forget is that these numbers represent a major international shift. They are, in my mind, a significant movement towards the significant changes we need in our society.
It’s tough sometimes to be a climate activist and be positive. We see the frightening science, and then the huge challenges we face to create a safe climate. Yet, at times I feel as though we can get too down on ourselves. We see a world where the absolute transformation we want now hasn’t happened yet and blame ourselves for a failure to the planet.
Gandhi once stated, “first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Climate activists have been ignored, laughed at, and we’re now being fought against tooth and nail. But within all of this, the evidence is showing that in many ways we are now starting to win. No, not everything that we need has changed, and we still need to do a lot of work to make the major changes in our society that are needed to tackle climate change. Those fighting against us will not stop, and in many places are still getting stronger. But the dramatic rise from ‘non-issue’ to ‘international problem’ resulting in significant economic and environmental changes around the world represent a major success that climate activists should be proud of.
The fight continues, but if the Climate Commission report yesterday says anything, it’s that we are on the right track.