(Image: Christoffer Relander)
THE good news: we鈥檝e finally stopped arguing about whether climate change is real. The bad news: we鈥檙e still arguing over what to do about it. And the more we talk, the warmer the globe gets.
So why do we keep arguing, rather than acting? Largely because humans can鈥檛 think straight about climate change, a subject almost unparalleled in its capacity to breed confusion and inaction (see 鈥�33 reasons why we can鈥檛 think clearly about climate change鈥�). Of course, one group does know how to think about it: climate scientists. But their models and scenarios can be difficult for laypeople to grasp, and hard to translate into the practical steps urgently needed to fend off permanent, large-scale losses (see 鈥�Climate change hits world鈥檚 outstanding natural areas鈥�).
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This week, scientists are gathering in Paris 鈥� which will in December host the next big climate summit 鈥� to prepare suggestions for 鈥渁n ambitious post-2015 governance regime鈥�. Given the dismal lack of progress to date, you would have to be a die-hard optimist to expect those suggestions to be taken up by negotiators at the end of the year.
Even those leading the talks seem weary of the merry-go-round. What鈥檚 now needed is continuous and systematic negotiation, not intermittent gabfests, says S茅gol猫ne Royal, who will hold the French chair at the December summit. 鈥淚f you treated a business like that, it would have gone bust years ago,鈥� she says.
Perhaps it is just as well, then, that the latest climate activists mean business 鈥� literally. A growing number of companies and investors have concluded that climate change will hit them hard. There is mounting pressure to retreat from companies with large carbon exposures. Climate change, says Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, 鈥渋s no longer just a moral case but an economic one鈥�.
Others, from artists to clergy, are starting to speak up too (see 鈥�It鈥檚 time for science to take a back seat on climate change鈥�), but business, above all, has the ear of policy-makers. That might be enough to ignite action on climate change, and on that ambitious governance regime. After all, when money talks, people tend to listen.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淲hen money talks鈥�
