Deal with climate crisis differently

There can be little doubt – after myriad scientific study findings – that climate change is a major medium- and long term threat to the future of our planet.

Those attending COP26 – the 26th meeting of the countries that signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change treaty in 1994 – in Glasgow this week, will say many important things and walk away satisfied they have done their best to slow down the change.

However, what the climate change debate illustrates clearly is the gulf between rich and developed nations on one hand and poor and developing countries on the other.

Rich people in the north are pushing hard for changes which seriously affect those in the Third World. For example, electric cars and the infrastructure needed to run them take a huge health and environmental toll on the countries which produce supposedly “green” raw materials.

Yet, rich people in Europe don’t do simple things to help, like switching off the unnecessary lights in their cities. Nor do they give money to poor countries to help them become “greener”.

History shows the developed world was built on colonial exploitation. Initiatives like COP26 must not allow the climate change crisis to become the new imperialism.