The Paris Conference: A Change in Consciousness

On Monday, November 30, the twelve day United Nations Conference on Climate Change begins. This conference is the 21st annual Conference of the Parties (COP) - the “Parties” being countries that want to take action on climate change. It is also the 11th session of the Conference: Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP).  The previous twenty-one annual conferences have been full of rhetoric, demonstrations, protestors, and lobbying of environmental activists, and also of very little commitment, agreement, or actual change.  But the Paris Conference offers hope of transformative change. Consider Canada. As I write this blog, it is not bureaucrats, but our new Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna who is participating in discussions which seek common ground on key issues which will form the basis for a framework for agreement. And it is senior federal and provincial politicians who will attend the Conference. Already these changes represent a shift in our attitudes.

Canada has lagged far behind other countries in taking action to prevent the looming destruction of our planet, earth. Twenty-eight European countries with targets far more stringent targets than those of Canada have already met their year 2020 targets. The Conservative Government has done very little work towards meeting the limited target of a 30% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.  But now, our newly elected Government is sending change makers to the Conference and has promised to set new targets for environmental change within 90 days. This is happening only because citizens, groups, scientists, and leaders have had a shift in their conscious awareness of the need to protect our shared home on this planet. We are realizing the need to understand the underlying structures which are inflicting damage to our environment. We are undergoing a shift in our worldview and values. And we are coming to the realization that the whole of creation is sacred and we human beings have a sacred mission to look after our planet.

Another reason for hope is a fundamental change in the process to be used at the Conference. Steve Zwick writing in Ecosystem Marketplace reports that unlike past years, negotiators do not have the impossible task of weaving millions of incompatible threads into a “uniform sheet”. This time the process is akin to a “charm quilt” made of many patches, each of which is a different fabric. The more than one hundred patches are “Intended Nationally-Determined Contributions” (INDCs) that countries have been formulating all year.  Some of these INDC patches fit together and some clash. 

Negotiators meeting in Bonn this week are trying to fit the pieces together and that means figuring out which elements of climate change strategy should be universally defined and which should be left to INDCs. Phrases and mechanisms that some countries hold sacred while other countries regard as profane will be left out of the universally defined strategy since there is no possibility on agreement by all countries to these items. The items excluded from the framework agreement will then be the responsibility of INDCs.

Estimates for agreed action on reductions in greenhouse gases currently stand at reductions totaling 2.7 degrees centigrade. To meet the 2 degree target required to prevent environmental disaster there will need to be dramatic increases in INDCs and a method for fitting these patches together.

Pope Frances has entered the discussion on climate change with his recent encyclical Laudato Si’. He notes that unless we undergo a radical conversion in regard to our patterns of consumption and relationships, dire consequences for humanity and our planet will ensue. To bring about change in the consciousness of the world’s view about our use of natural resources and care of our planet, we firs need to bring about change in each ourselves. Transformative change in others begins with transformative change in ourselves. 

Pat McKeon, CSJ