The Planet's Clock Does Not Stop

We have six years left to meet the challenges we set for ourselves in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, agreed in 2015 by the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) as an action plan in favor of the health of the planet, and our own survival.

However, when we analyze that more time has passed than the time remaining, and the achievements are low, we understand that we are still very far from the purpose, and that, perhaps, we will have to consider extending the term or change objectives; that is, if we want the human species not to become extinct for the environmental catastrophe that we seem to have in the future.

What is a fact is that up to this point the planning how much strategy has been derived from industry events with world leaders and civil society activists frequently meet to evaluate results and progress of environmental deterioration, and  there is increasingly more evidence supporting the need to abandon the consumption of fossil fuels such as coal, gas and petroleum.

The answer to each analysis remains the same: migrate towards the use of renewable, green, clean, or sustainable energy is the only safe way to reduce global warming, which alters patterns climate, the balance of nature, and that, in short, ensures many risks to all life forms on Earth.

Among the unfulfilled promises, a very important one stands out related with financing so that many non-developed countries move forward that directly suffer the effects of climate change and that can do little because they do not have the means to bet on renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, very efficient, but expensive.

Meanwhile, the most industrialized nations are finding it difficult to get rid of consumerist lifestyle patterns that encourage the waste of resources, and assume a selfish and irrational stance without taking into account that, even if they live in opulence today, they won’t be able to escape the deterioration that it will reach everyone equally when the planet reaches a temperature of 1.5 ºC.

The global climate agenda requires urgent changes such as finding sustainable alternatives that help achieve this energy transition which we talk so much about, and that requires investments and to stop avoiding responsibilities, much less promising in vain.

Despite the warnings, the real world is going elsewhere because many economies are still based on the exploitation of fossil fuels, for example, and far from reducing their production, they expand and They are constantly searching for new deposits, which contradicts the speech.

So, it’s not only about the lack of investment to promote climate solutions if we maintain the practices of old and do not save the expendable. At this rate we will continue to suffer more and more constant heat waves and dangerous events, as well as storms, floods, droughts, and diseases; we will lose ecosystems, animals species and plants, and, thus, little by little the planet will deteriorate until it will be too late to react.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff