Climate politics and policy are the linchpin of climate action. More than any particular technology, the fundamental solution to a climate crisis rests in our foresight and political will.
Our daily political discourse provides neither.
As long as climate change acceptance, let alone action, is used as a political cudgel. History does not unfold linearly. There are moments in time, a few decades, maybe a century, that alter the course of history dramatically, suddenly, and forever.
Adopting a politically collaborative approach to climate change is hard to imagine. Nonetheless, we must do the unimaginable. Our moment, this decade, is a juncture in human history–a fork in the road.
The political will to act right now to mitigate and adapt to a climate-changed world–or not–will ripple through the future of life on this planet.
The Paris Agreement agreed to in 2015 hinted at the possibility of collegial aspiration. But that was years ago, and the planet continues to warm.
It’s one thing to agree on something. Much harder to do it. The devil is in the details.
Policy
Good policy-making is the building block of real, sustainable solutions. Everything from international treaties to municipal zoning codes, the policies we enact and enforce shape society and impact the environment.
Policy is tied up in politics and the array of stakeholders influencing both. Therein lay the challenge. The powerful and powerless, the rich and poor, the right and the left, must agree on the shared interests of living on the same planet. Now and for the future.
It is not our planet. We are merely our stewards for a short time, leaving what we’ve done to the next generation.
