We have a continuous data set demonstrating that greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. This pollution causes global warming, droughts and fires, storms, sea level rise and increased rainfall resulting in flooding. These changes in the climate are making our world less habitable.
The graph shows monthly mean carbon dioxide levels measured at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii. The carbon dioxide data from Mauna Loa constitute the longest record of direct CO₂ measurements in the atmosphere, with the first readings recorded in March 1958. Yet, we have not even dented the upward trajectory.
The United Nations system emerged from World War II as a rules-based international order, slowly built since 1945. In 2015, the Paris Agreement was adopted by 196 nations at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, France, on 12 December. It entered into force on 4 November 2016, with the objective of holding “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and pursuing efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”
2024 was the warmest year ever recorded. The Earth was 1.6°C hotter than the pre-industrial temperature average, breaking the record set in 2023 by just over 0.1°C. This means that the last 10 years are now the 10 warmest years on record. The BBC presents this data graphically. Weather is naturally variable, and it is all too easy to dismiss extreme weather events as aberrations.
As the news broke about 2024 being the hottest year on record, we were witnessing destructive wildfires in and around Los Angeles, driven by drought, tinder-dry forests, and high winds. Droughts, wildfires, flooding, and storms have become the new normal. Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, the 2006 documentary, explained the rise of this new normal, which stems from our failure to address the emissions driving climate change.
The Earth’s atmosphere — our atmosphere — may appear infinite. It is not. We have understood the science of the greenhouse effect for over 150 years. This is not new or uncertain science. The greenhouse gases we emit today will continue to warm our planet for decades.
The problem is that our atmosphere is a common property resource; the emissions we release into it affect all of us. We cannot isolate ourselves from the consequences of others’ emissions. Countries, industries, businesses, or individuals are unlikely to bear the costs of reducing or halting their emissions unless others do the same. And currently, they are not. An effective international regulatory framework is essential if we are to leave a habitable world for future generations.
The international rules-based system, exercised through the United Nations, was already struggling to address the challenge of reducing emissions to halt climate change. Now, some major corporations are actively abandoning these efforts, with real consequences.
Major companies are quietly abandoning climate commitments
In August 2024, Forbes published an article titled “Why Big Corporations Are Quietly Abandoning Their Climate Commitments?“
“Google, Microsoft, and Shell once positioned themselves as leaders in sustainability, setting ambitious net-zero goals to align with global environmental efforts. However, the rapid rise of energy-hungry artificial intelligence is forcing these companies to reconsider—or even abandon—these commitments as they struggle to balance environmental responsibility and making money from new tech.”
Then, in November, Donald Trump was elected.
Time ran an article last month on “Trump’s Major Moves to Dismantle Climate Action”
“Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law’s “Climate Backtracker,” has logged more than 45 efforts to scale back or eliminate federal climate mitigation and adaptation measures since the administration took office at the end of January—ranging from boosting fossil-fuel production to withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accords.”
At the same time, major corporations have backtracked on their climate commitments:
- BP has dropped most of its ambitious renewable targets and focusing again on increasing oil and gas production to boost profits.
- Shell abandoned a key climate target for 2035 and weakened another goal for 2030, according to its latest “energy transition strategy”.
- Southwest Airlines last week laid off seven out of 10 employees on two key teams that work to reduce its climate pollution and increase its use of sustainable aviation fuel, or “SAF”.
- Airbus is delaying its Hydrogen-Powered Aircraft—although it isn’t abandoning it.
Where do we do from here?
Mitigation is not delivering; our species is continuing to cause climate change. For the last decade or so, the emphasis has shifted to mitigation and adaptation. If the international rule-based system collapses, and it is in a perilous condition, then adaptation is the strategy we all need to adopt as we beggar our neighbours.
