News

The Group of 20 (G-20) summit meeting has just concluded. Among other things, it was an influential platform to address climate change and the detrimental effects global warming has wrought and will continue to wreak universally. The torrent of news this year on the devastation brought on by droughts and floods is testament to how urgently the issue needs to be addressed. Slash-and-burn practices carried out in Asia to grow produce are often criticised by green advocates for the harm done to the environment (and rightly so), even if these are poor economies trying to feed themselves and seeking to achieve some of the affluence that Western countries have already attained. It reeks of hypocrisy that developed countries are themselves worsening global warming – all this while vilifying the practices of others. G-20 participants such as the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia are among the countries stepping on the gas in new oil and gas developments (New oil and gas projects in the pipeline will bust climate goals, report says, Sept 13), ending any chance to limit global warming to 1.5 deg C. Paying lip service to what is now apparent to all as the most pressing issue of our time is unhelpful. It makes one wonder whether all these summits attended by the most privileged powerful nations of the world – who have already exploited global resources enough to make them what they are – have lost their credibility and relevance.