By Bamidele Oni
In the wake of the year 2015, every pointer was in the direction of a productive year of substantial and unequivocal leap of meaningful development in the wise of global action at tackling the seemingly burdens of concern for the whole of humanity-Sustainable development and climate change.
While the habitual records of global imbalanced portrayal of concern has for one represented the accumulating factor of delays and of course the possible reprimanding results of such delays, every hopeful heart that had never tarried at raising a common voice of change envisioned and anticipated a possible event changing year.
A year of action it’s been tagged as and from all possible scenario, the potential of the year still depicts a level of certainty in the tune of change of tides. Although the year is already halved and the odds still counts on the side of would it really be the year of final breakthrough?
The recently released Encyclicals by the Pope added a voice of heightened concern to the already growing and soon to explode backlog of calls for action as it has become a norm of collection from every angle of the world.
This singular output from the papacy has given further credence to the notion of a dying planet at the mercy of humanity. Perhaps the scope of categorising the planet as a fellow entity just as humans in the family of creation would help to see to the fact that every form of foulness we feed this planet with would definitely find a way at coming back to us as we do have a connection that calls for interdependence.
Also the notion of a global perspective on solution derivation in the view of production and consumption gives a focus on the means to finding a balance to living within the capacity the planet could possibly support.
The encyclical made some point as well on the need for fairness and balance in the common approach towards responding to climate change such that the global South can at least have a base of lifting out from the drowning effect of injustice with regards to the global responses to climate change.
The pope has said so much in the released document in support of all that had already been laid on the ground of facts and substantial evidences from scientific bodies and allied professional studies. The circumstance of making public this compilation could be well apportioned as being timely especially following the tunes of events leading to the climate conference coming up later in the year in Paris.
The G7 at the completion of their engagement came out with the statement of support in phasing out fossil fuel at the end of the century. This in way says a lot in accordance with the global expectations at the coming conference of parties and that in addition to the Intended nationally determined goals expected from every country of the world.
Although the Bonn negotiations took the usual route of long and seemingly endless debates with not so much to show for the round table talks but at least the focus was centred on the new global agreement on limiting the greenhouse gas emissions to take effect from 2020.
The year is quite on the hot seat of been productive even as the world prepares for another round of meeting to set out the new sustainable development goals come September and just some few month before we set out for the much awaited climate conference where we expect a lot of showdown considering the indifferences already building up.
While the happenings now might not be significantly sufficient to make a decisive inference on the possible outcome from the expectations anticipated from the many moves within the year, a most suitable side of play might not then be to sit with folded arms and watch the unfolding of events but a step of joining forces with the majority taking a stand in the very effort they could possibly muster in influencing with their selfless actions would make a lot of difference.
Conclusively, it is rather unfortunate that just a fraction of the world is holding all to a ransom here, wasting the precious time the world cannot afford. The global south still wallow in the dampness of vulnerability and the impact is so real now even than ever , yet we could still afford taking national interest above a much needed global alliance.
Once, words failed us and we went to war, we never wanted a repeat and we formed an alliance, now it seems words are falling even in the alliance but the difference now is to the fact that we might not go to war against ourselves but we might have to safe ourselves when nature goes to war with us.
Oni, the Executive Director of Green Impact International, writes from Abeokuta, Nigeria
