Platform on civil engineering, underground infrastructure, energy, construction equipment & construction machinery
We are writing Friday, Nov. 5, 2021. The international climate summit in Glasgow, COP26, has been underway for a few days now. At the UN conference, countries are discussing ways to limit global warming to a degree and a half. It is necessary because we are falling behind in achieving the goals set out in the UN Paris Climate Agreement.
The Morning News reports this Friday that a study by Oxfam Novib shows that CO2 emissions from the richest 1 percent of the world's population will be so high by 2030 that it will be impossible to meet the climate goals as agreed in Paris. Is it too late? Richard Janssen, director and owner of Nering Bögel wonders that like many others, but believes that doing nothing at least is not an option. A conversation about intentions and mentality.
“The same news report tells us that the emissions of the richest of the world exceed 30 times the limit to stay below 1.5 degrees of warming,” Janssen says. “The excessive behavior of the richest 1 percent of the world's population is responsible for most of the C02 emissions. The cause must be sought in excessive consumption behavior, excessive travel on private jets and sailing on large yachts. The report further shows that the richest 10 percent of the world's population has a carbon footprint 9 times too large. The emissions of the poorest half of the population are negligible in this regard. However, that group will experience the greatest blows from further global warming. So the pain is not being felt where it really should be. If that doesn't change, then everything seems pointless. Yet my firm opinion is that doing nothing is not an option.”
Janssen likes to dive into history: Eunice Newton Foote was an American physicist and inventor. She was the first to suggest that CO2 may well raise temperatures on Earth, following measurements of carbon dioxide and water vapor in 1856. Edward Teller (1908-2003) was an American theoretical physicist-also one of the inventors of the atomic bomb-who predicted that we needed to look for alternatives to fossil fuels in the face of global warming. They were callers in the desert. The consumer society became a fact and ‘after us the flood,’ seemed to be the credo. Today we are paying the price for that. We owe it to our posterity to try to limit the damage as much as possible.”
The effects of climate change are directly observable for our little chickadee. More frequent and increasingly intense rainstorms are disrupting our society. “Just look at the flooding in Limburg. We are a transit country of water. With masses of water pouring down on us that can be as much as 20,000 cubic meters per second, it's mopping up. If you think in boundaries, nasty situations arise. For example, there have been floods in Germany because the Netherlands refused to open certain locks. German lock keepers were fed up and went on strike en masse. Dam and dike breaches followed, in both Germany and the Netherlands. This is similar at the European level to what is happening worldwide: it is ‘every man for himself. We won't win this battle with that. Cooperation is the only solution,’ Janssen said.
“We must say goodbye en masse to the old, spoiled life, in which we regard consuming as the highest good. Everyone can start doing that at home. If we look at industry, there is still much to be gained. At Nering Bögel we are energy-positive, meaning that we produce more green electricity than we need ourselves, resulting in -/- 200 tons of CO2. In addition, the focus is now on reducing CO2 emissions in production. We have now reached the point where we can already produce gullies and manhole edges almost CO2-free.”
Janssen further believes that the media and politicians have a role to play. “Everything is whipped up so much and we are warned about the consequences so often -great sensational headlines deliver that- that people get tired of it. Trust in politics and media is waning, causing people to sit back and think, ‘It will all work out.’ But we have to start working together, in small ways, at home, within companies, all countries together. Is that possible? Yes! How do you get that to happen? Countries have to stop walking on eggshells, stop the big egos, stop lobbying and taking climate issues off the political playing field. That will have to change first, because CO2 just doesn't read and watch the news.”
