Climate change action falls vicitim to political turmoil

Today the New York Times reported that carbon trading is losing momentum amid the uncertainty created by the failure of the Copenhagen summit and President Obama's political troubles in the United States. That's not even counting in general cuts on spending (still) due to the financial crisis. With investors acorss the world steering clear of carbon credit generating projects, it seems the well established European Union’s Emission Trading System is the only one most likely to survive. This comes as a big disappointment to those who hoped that the carbon market would quickly grow into a $2-trillion-a-year business.

While this is worrying in economical terms, it is even more worrying in terms of the environmental impact this trend will have. It is no secret that climate scepticism is on the rise everywhere, with political parties now taking clear side against those in favour of climate action. Gone are the times when one needed to tread carefully to not upset the general public. We only need to look at the Australian opposition leader Tony Abbott to understand that lobbying against climate change action is now being widely exploited as a tool to gain workers' votes with an aim to win elections. Climate change has once more been degraded to a mere PR instrument, but this time the cause is to fight climate change supporters rather than to fight the threat itself. Unfortunately, while we can all do out bit, we will not be able to limit the effects of climate change without the support of our leaders. This is not only a worrying but a life-threatening development.