Fight for socialist change to stop environmental destruction
Dara Fitzgerald, West London Socialist Party
The news cycle horror show continues unabated as a new report puts into stark terms the environmental disaster slowly unfolding before us. The ‘UN Emissions Gap Report’ is a yearly assessment of the difference between what’s been pledged by countries to reduce their carbon emissions, and what’s needed to meet the 2016 Paris Agreement’s requirements to cap global increases of temperatures to 1.5°C. The intro to the report was clear:
“Nations must accelerate action now, show a massive increase in ambition in the new pledges and then deliver urgently with policies and implementation. If they do not, the Paris Agreement target of holding global warming to 1.5°C will be dead within a few years and 2°C will take its place in the intensive care unit”
While there has been undoubted global action to address the oncoming climate catastrophe, this has so far been woefully insufficient. Emissions of the G20 countries increased in 2023, accounting for 77% of the total. Huge technological advances have been made in the solar, wind and electric vehicle sectors, but without upgraded grid infrastructure, neglected in the UK for years, and a massive upsurge in grid storage capacity, the reliance of fossil fuels to prevent capacity fluctuations will be leaned on for the foreseeable future.
Huge funding gaps remain. The question is – how is this to be funded? More and more people are finding it difficult to afford even the basic essentials for a life worth living. There are things that can be done that won’t make workers pay for the benefit of the wealthy. We can transition workers in the oil and gas sector to others so they aren’t made to pay with their livelihoods – like the green excuses Tata Steel have used to shut down steel production in Port Talbot. But only if those industries and the banks and business that dominate the economy are nationalised under democratic workers’ control. We could end bloated subsidies to auto-industry bosses, and massively expand a high-quality, free public transport system. By taking over the building companies we could make sure there’s safe, energy-saving insulation and renewable materials in all new homes built.
Under capitalism, the measures needed can only be carried out partially and attempts will be made to make us – the working class – pay for it. Due to the profit seeking and extractive nature of capitalism, as well as the competing interests of capitalists and different capitalist states, the only alternative is an international socialist response. Come join us in our fight for a better future.