Katowice, the Polish city in which the recent global climate summit was held, is quite close to Auschwitz-Birkenau — the place where over one million people were choked to death in gas chambers by Nazi Germany around 75 years ago. The guide, standing on a cemented platform where a narrow train line had come to a sudden end, was matter of fact: “almost every day trains were used to bring thousands, often twice, and got them disembarked here. Then most of them were taken into those gas chambers, killed within a hour or so, then taken to the crematorium (located in between two gas chambers)... and finally the ash used to be dumped where you guys are standing”. As an eerie calm engulfed us, a middle-aged lady almost quipped to herself, “this is the result when you give all power to politicians”.
The quip, in a strange coincidence, seemed so relevant in context to the deliberations happening among politicians from about 200 countries at International Conference Centre in Katowice, hardly a 40-minute drive from the gas chambers. Most will agree that these politicians, meant to find a way out of the ever-increasing impact of global climate change, have actually been working in the opposite direction, their continuous wrangling over narrow vested interests putting the future of the world under threat as it gradually turns into a mega gas chamber with excruciating heat.
Major setbacks
Let us start with the gas itself. During the Katowice summit, scientists warned that carbon dioxide may be called the Zyklon B — the chemical used in the gas chambers during the Holocaust — of the present era as it plays the major role in global warming and greenhouse gas emissions. At the historic Paris climate summit in 2015, countries famously agreed to cut down on their respective emission levels and voluntarily declared their intended nationally determined contributions; many felt that was the beginning of the true fight against climate change. However, nearly four years down the line, questions are already being asked: are we still there? The United Nations Environment Programme has made it clear that countries need to treble their emission cuts compared to the NDCs if the world is to survive, but many countries do not even seem to be in a position to stick to their initial NDC limits. Although the actions against climate change are set to roll from 2020, the enthusiasm of 2015 seems to be waning among the stakeholders. The Katowice agreement is actually a testimony to this, as an incomplete and weak rule book — to implement the decisions taken in Paris — was formulated after a deliberation that went 24 hours into overtime.
The emergence of the president of the United States of America, Donald Trump, and his rhetoric and actions against climate change are important factors in the setbacks in the fight against global warming after the Paris summit. However, what is perhaps more disturbing is that a few other countries in Middle East, Europe and the American continents seem to be backtracking covertly as well. During the Katowice conference, these countries were often found to be holding back the discussion under the slightest pretext. Two important days were lost just to decide whether the word ‘welcome’ should be used in accepting a recent report on the 1.5 degree celsius rise in global temperature.
It will, however, not be fair to only criticize Trump and those backing his climate policy. Almost all politicians across the board, mostly from developed countries but also from developing nations, are to be blamed for gradually turning the world into a gas chamber through their cumulative inaction over decades. It is a strange mahajot, in which most countries are working in tandem to speed up a climate-related holocaust.
