The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions

by Jason Hickel

But the Paris Agreement makes no mention of this red line. In fact, it imposes no limits on the use of fossil fuels whatsoever. What is more, the Paris pledges don’t even kick in until 2020. In other words, countries are allowed to continue increasing their carbon emissions for five years after the agreement was signed, by which time we will have blown the budget for 1.5°C. On the face of it, five years seem a fair transition period, even given the tight budget. But we have known about anthropogenic climate change since at least the 1960s, and international negotiations to reduce carbon emissions have been under way since 1990. And yet instead of reducing annual carbon emissions, we have increased them by 61 per cent over the past two decades.57 Governments are still subsidising the fossil fuel industry to the tune of $5.3 trillion per year, according to the IMF’s most recent estimates, while perversely using the WTO’s court to knock down subsidies for alternative technologies such as solar panels.58 What