We must redouble efforts to mitigate the worst effects of the problems that we, through decades of human activity, have wrought. The Paris agreement was a start, but we need a restart, a fresh global drive to combat the common menace — ourselves, and the way we produce and consume energy. If there's a silver lining to the COVID-19 pandemic, it's that it has shown the developed world that we can, indeed, change behavior, and that basic changes in daily life can reduce emissions. The Paris Agreement was a bold pact framed by optimism, but also by a recognition that weaning the world off fossil fuels is expensive, will require unimaginable levels of political will and self-sacrifice, and cannot be achieved without deep wells of mutual goodwill. And we cannot change by clinging to the past.

Source: Daily Sun December 14, 2020 19:09 UTC