Categories: Uncategorized

Over the low bar

I could easily cheer the climate change agreement reached yesterday in Paris: it is the first to gain universal adherence, it starts the process of limiting greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, it makes a big down payment on helping poorer countries join the process, it sends a strong signal to finance and industry about future directions, it is a big win for President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry, and it arguably initiates a process that will ratchet up restraints on emissions for decades to come.

But the sad fact is that the agreement does not do what many scientists think necessary to avoid catastrophic outcomes: limit future increases in global temperatures to 2 degrees centigrade or less. So yes, the agreement may be a turning point, and it is certainly a remarkable example of global governance aiming to meet the challenge of a long-term problem. It may even avoid the worst of the impacts global warming might have caused. But it won’t prevent island countries from being inundated and even submerged, or ferocious storms from ravaging many parts of the world. Nor will it prevent the United States and other countries with long coastlines from needing to spend fortunes to protect property and infrastructure, if they don’t want to lose to both to rising sea levels.

This is one of those triumphs that needs to be seen in perspective. Both what it achieves and what it fails to achieve are significant. But no agreement would have been far worse. Failure would have poisoned the subject for another decade or more, as politicians would have hesitated to revive it once more from its deathbed.

So the bar may be low, but getting over it is better than not getting over it. In foreign policy, that is cause enough for celebration.

Daniel Serwer

Share
Published by
Daniel Serwer

Recent Posts

The horse race Harris will win

Persuading time is over. The campaign that gets its voters to the poll wins. I…

2 days ago

Mushroom clouds over the Middle East

Adding Iran to the non-NPT states (India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel) could undermine the…

5 days ago

Georgia in contrast: red and blue

Immigrants speak a different language, have different customs, and likely vote for Harris. That's enough…

6 days ago

What happens if Trump wins?

Washington and Brussels need to strengthen both the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and…

1 week ago

Complaint department, North Macedonia

Yes to Ali Ahmeti on the language issue. No to the government on the ethnic…

1 week ago

All good, until it’s not, in Atlanta

When the courts refuse their proposals, they will no doubt complain that the election wasn't…

1 week ago