A day will come

As a teenager watching television, 10 years ago, I decided I wanted to dedicate my life to sustainability because of a single campaign advertised on MTv. Since 2012, I have been working in this sector from various aspects before returning to study Climate Change in hope of answering the last pieces to my puzzle. Over the last few months I have investigated the barriers society has faced in the pursuit of a green future. I was eager to learn what had been tried and tested, what was successful, what was in progress and what potential barriers still existed to a green movement and ultimately future. I noted the significance of climate change within this pursuit, quoting the 2007 IPCC report in stating that “[climate change] is part of the larger challenge of sustainable development. As a result, climate policies can be more effective when consistently embedded within broader strategies designed to make national and regional development paths more sustainable”. 

The provision of solar panels to poor communities has improved the quality of life, reduced their carbon footprint (predominantly through forest clearing and burning for/of wood) and consequently, the reduced their contribution to climate change.

Our part in a different world

It has been said that “sustainability is an ideology, a way of thinking, a way of life. It is not an end product; it is a vision”. There is no denying our progress toward sustainable development. Yes, there are areas that need to be re-evaluated but they are far from what they once were. The quest for sustainability is not one just for conservationists, 'tree huggers', climate change believers or activists, it is a quest for all of us to maintain the quality of life we so flippantly enjoy now. If you have not yet grasped what a green future means, the following video epitomises this vision and the barriers that have conflicted this movement. In an essence, it is somewhat of a summary of my blog to date.

My next post will continue to summarise this blog in bringing it to a close. I aim to explain the links between the conflicts discussed here and draw conclusions on whether these barriers towards a green future, having prevented us from achieving sustainability thus far, will continue to hinder our development and prevent us from achieving sustainability in our future.

Political shifts

Climate change is pre-eminently a political project. The behaviour of humans under the influence of politics is irrefutably fundamental in discussing why it has taken over 20 years to call for climate action through sustainable development with other barriers including public perceptions and economics.

Internal wars

Thomas Edison famously said "opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work". Attending the Emissions Gap Report Launch some weeks ago, I felt this was the most prominent message. For countries that do not mine fossil fuels, a transition to a green economy and future would result in less fossil fuel imports, greater self-sufficiency and therefore be in their best interests. Norway's shift to sustainability is a great example of this and at the launch, Eric Solheim, former Norwegian politician and now executive director of UNEP said "Climate change is not a cost, it is a shift. There was no cost to fixing acid rain or ozone. Climate change is a business opportunity".  Norway, boasting the greatest number and tallest waterfalls in Europe, has a fantastic hydroelectric power potential. Perhaps it is this potential economic independence that sustainability offers that is one of the last remaining barriers to green economies. This blog is a continuation of last week’s discussion on the suppression of sustainability by economics within the greater context of three dominant barriers faced by the green movement in the past.

Are the days where harvesting energy left landscapes scarred, soon to be a thing of the past?  Recent projects are turning these renewable energy production houses in to landscape features, adding a tourism benefit to their green footprint, an ingenius idea! Pictured here is the Øvre Forsland Hydropower Station in Norway.

Insouciant economics

When calling for climate action, it is fundamental that the economics work; money talks. In the past, economics have been a major conflict towards sustainable developments, so what has changed to allow for economically sound climate action?

The profitable investments in fossil fuels made the transition to green alternatives difficult as investors have favoured traditional fossil fuel usage due to high returns over the lower returns of sustainable alternatives. In addition, many global economies were and are supported by their fossil fuels exports and a move away from these commodities threatens to send these countries into recession. It is no secret that fossil fuel companies have in the past and continue to lobby politics against participating or promoting green movements, pretending to withdraw their funding to parties, and locking them in to dirty fuel based growth. In a nutshell, fossil fuel investments boasted high returns with little concern for a shift in consumption patterns as promoted by politics. The role of politics in sustainable development is a topic I will cover in the next few weeks, here I would like to focus on how a lack of supportive policy has lead to unfavourable economics and hence little to no sustainable development in the past. 

In 2012, the top 40 mining companies earned a profit of 13 cents per every US$ spent. However, since 2011, oil prices have dropped drastically as a result of over supply and investment uncertainty giving renewables a market opportunity to compete. 

Welcome to my blog!

Following years of denial since its discovery, climate change is finally being accepted as a certainty and global threat to humanity, requiring immediate action. The threat is not however that of extinction. We have survived and surpassed all expectation by overcoming previous disasters and will continue to dominate the Earth. The threat surrounds a loss of wealth of life.

Since 01 September 2016 - 10 October 2016 approximately 1.5 million people have been displaced by natural disasters globally (IDMC, 2016)