Skip to footer

Is this the year of climate stewardship?

A burst of diplomacy leading up to the next climate summit, especially by Europe, the US, and China, signals more cooperation to put goals into action.   

|
AP/file
An anti-poaching patrol rides on the Oua River in Gabon.
  • By the Monitor's Editorial Board

Sometimes, just sometimes, climate diplomacy can lead to climate action. Last month, for example, Gabon became the first African country to be paid for protecting its forests, which cover 90% of the country. It received $17 million from Norway, part of a larger international plan to prevent tree-cutting in Central Africa and preserve the role of forests in absorbing climate-heating emissions.

Such triumphs in eco-stewardship across borders are worth noting because this year has seen an extraordinary burst in climate diplomacy, a professional field now as important as nuclear, trade, or peace diplomacy. This could mean the international talk-shops that regularly agree on voluntary climate goals might be closer to producing real results, perhaps leading to fewer heat waves, mass flooding, or super typhoons.

In recent months, the world’s major air polluters – China, the United States, and Europe – have stepped up their geopolitical competition in setting climate goals. On Wednesday, the European Union issued a very specific regulatory plan that could reduce greenhouse gases 55% by 2030 compared with 1990 levels. President Joe Biden is pushing a multitrillion-dollar infrastructure plan that is heavily focused on green energy and decarbonization. He also created the first Cabinet-level climate envoy, filled by former Secretary of State John Kerry. In March, China announced that it would begin to scale down coal use in 2026 as it scales up renewable energies. On a more cooperative level, the G-20 group of wealthy nations has collectively endorsed carbon pricing for the first time.

Much of this diplomacy is driven by the next United Nations meeting on climate planned for November. Nations want to put their best plan forward at the talks in Glasgow, Scotland. The U.S. has also returned to the table after a four-year lapse in climate diplomacy during the Trump administration. And the pandemic has served as a reminder that global cooperation is needed for global challenges.

Climate diplomats, who represent their respective national interests, increasingly use the term “climate security.” While countries may be affected differently by climate change, they all must be on board to help secure themselves from harm. Stewardship of the planet must include stewardship of other nations. That’s why Norway is paying Gabon to save trees. They both feel a bit more secure working together.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Is this the year of climate stewardship?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2021/0716/Is-this-the-year-of-climate-stewardship
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe