Whose job is it to stop climate change? I am asked this question very frequently.
The answer is simple. It is the responsibility of every individual and every responsible government.
Climate change is too big a problem to be solved simply by virtuous individuals hopping on a bus instead of taking the car, or disconnecting the tumble dryer, valuable though those moves are. This is one responsibility that can’t be saddled solely on activists and consumers. This is a job for government.
Which means governments, no less than individuals, have to rethink their behaviour. Until now, administrations and various government officials have tended to dump climate change into the laps of their environment ministries. The odd speech from the president or prime minister, to raise the issue’s profile, but otherwise filed under "e" for environment.
That approach is clearly no longer, sustainable. It should be obvious that climate change is not a discrete policy problem but an across-the-board threat to every aspect of our lives, if not our very survival. Confronted with a planetary emergency, it takes a special kind of bureaucratic myopia to allocate it to a single government ministry. It has to be the concern of every single govenment official to walk the talk and implement eco-policies that will ensure our very survival.
Governments must act – swiftly and substantially.
Send your thoughts to sharad@go-green.ae