Global warming: governments sacked back to back.

The objectives to achieve a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, high enough to produce beneficial effects on the climate, are not achieved by any country.

Hurry up. Statements of good intentions on the part of governments are no longer enough. They come up against the expectations of citizens, the growing impatience of NGOs, the exasperation of the public actors involved and more recently, the judgments of the legal authorities. All of them demand that governments go much faster in their fight against global warming.

In our article of May 6, 2021 , we reported on the decision of the German Constitutional Council condemning too weak a climate policy on the part of the leaders currently in business in the country. Angela Merkel forced to move up a gear, then urged her country to go much faster in the fight against global warming.

Today, it is the French Council of State which demands from the government of Emmanuel Macron results at the height of the declared objectives. The judges ordered "the Prime Minister to take all useful measures to bend the curve of greenhouse gas emissions (...) in order to ensure its compatibility with the objectives" . And even if the Council of State has shown a certain flexibility by granting the French State a deadline until March 31, 2022, its decision is "final" . This judgment was relayed by the High Council for the Climate which considers that national measures must be in accordance with political decisions and that “the government cannot exempt itself from its commitments. "

Moreover, not content with failing to achieve the initial objectives, the heads of state of the European Union have decided to raise their objectives. They have now set themselves a 55% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030, compared to the 1990 level, instead of the 40% by 2030 initially planned. This decision should be made public by July 14 to be subsequently proposed at COP 26 to be held in November 2021 in Glasgow. Here is an additional constraint.

Far from political rhetoric, the reality is that no country signatory to the Paris Agreement has managed to meet its climate commitments. And they are all very far from it. Excerpts from an IPCC report that leaked to the press a few days ago predicting a nightmarish future for humanity in the decades to come, reminded us of a worrying reality. It did not take more to arouse once again the emotion and anger among the NGOs which do not release the pressure on the governments as well as among the various personalities mobilized to fight against the climatic upheavals.

This is how in France, the ecologist Nicolas Hulot expressed his deep concern. On Wednesday, June 30, he declared himself "exhausted" by the inaction of the political class before adding that: "on the right or on the left, everyone should take note and say that now is the priority" . According to the former Minister of the Environment, "all public policy must be considered from this perspective" ; namely a very dark future, and that "what we could do in thirty years, we will have to do in a few years" . With his speech, Nicolas Hulot also asks for concrete measures from the government as well as a kind of sacred union on the part of the entire French political class around the theme of ecology because he says: " No candidate will be credible if this subject is not his priority in his thinking, or there is a form of denial. We are at a historic moment for the history of humanity. Everyone must take their responsibilities. If it is again a subject of division, mockery, or caricature, we are going to hit the wall ”.

Not very far from there, it is Greta Thunberg, spearhead of the movement "Fridays for future" which violently attacked the leaders of the rich countries and did not have enough strong words to accuse them of playing and not to face the reality responsibly: “you have started to act. Not act for the climate. But act like in a role play. Play politics, play with words, play with our future ” and add: “ Maybe it helps you sleep at night, but as you pose as saviors, the gap between rhetoric and reality continues to widen and becomes impossible to ignore in the face of raging extreme weather events ” . She even went further by accusing governments of exploiting the climate crisis for commercial gain: "The climate crisis is today - at best - treated only as a commercial opportunity to create new jobs, activities and green technologies" .

Everyone reacts in their own way. Some in a measured way while others let their emotions escape in alarmist speeches. One thing is certain, however, and brings us together. Today we are preparing the future of our children and the question is to know what land we intend to leave them. This one question should encourage everyone to work hard and without wasting time, in order to leave them a planet in the least bad possible state, otherwise, as Nicolas Hulot rightly reminded us: " There is a moment when we will no longer be able to look our children in the eye ”.