Joyce Fegan: Cop on and start caring about climate change again

Women search for used clothes amid tons discarded in the Atacama desert, in Alto Hospicio, Iquique, Chile. Picture: AFP via Getty Images

In Viktor Frankl’s famous book Man’s Search for Meaning, he writes about concentration camp prisoners who smoke their own cigarettes.

The psychiatrist and psychotherapist wrote this book in just nine days having survived three years in four different Nazi camps.

“A man smoking his own cigarettes had given up faith in his ability to carry on,” he wrote. Frankl and his friends knew that when they saw a fellow prisoner smoking his own cigarettes, carefully reserved for buying extra bowls of soup in service of survival, he had given up and would shortly die.

“When a person can’t find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure,” said Frankl.

This week, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the leading global voice on the environment, published a 132-page report that said “inadequate progress on climate action makes rapid transformation of societies only option”.

Demonstrators take part in the Fridays for Future Scotland march through Glasgow ahead of the first anniversary of the Cop26 summit in Glasgow. Picture: John Linton/PA

The only thing we seem to do rapidly these days is in things like constant consumerism or fast fashion, which has now evolved into ultra-fast fashion. Channel 4 broadcast a documentary last week about one of these big ultra-fast fashion businesses, Shein.

During the programme, it was revealed that workers in one Shein factory received a wage of 3p per item produced. If a mistake is made, the worker is fined up to three quarters of their average daily salary — 100 Chinese Yuan, or €13. Some workers were also doing 18-hour days and only got one day off a month.

Terrible stuff. You’d think we’d be voting with our pockets. We’re not. Popular social media influencers regularly regale followers with their “Shein haul”.

And it’s not just individuals but investors patting their backs too.

In April 2022, Shein achieved a valuation of €88bn ($100bn) following a successful investment round. It means the ultra-fast fashion company that adds 2,000 new items a day to its site, is worth more than the combined value of the world’s two biggest retailers — Zara owner Inditex (€60bn valuation) and H&M (€17bn valuation).

Impact of fast fashion

Fast fashion, never mind ultra-fast fashion, is detrimental to the climate. We’ve seen images from Chile’s Atacama Desert of the mountains of unwanted clothes, from unworn jeans to our sequined Christmas jumpers.

The fashion industry makes up between 8% and 10% of all global carbon emissions and contributes 20% of all wastewater. It’s one of the key areas we’ve been warned about in the UN climate reports, but like most of it we seem to not only be turning a blind eye but leaning even heavier into the comforts of consumerism.

It’s understandable. Pandemic. War. Inflation. Who doesn’t want to seek refuge in comfort and pleasure?

Pre-pandemic many of us seemed gung-ho to take action on these climate reports. We learned about the difference between recyclable and non-recyclable Christmas wrapping paper, some even made their own climate-friendly Christmas crackers, people were buying pre-loved clothes, and many were thinking twice about all those flights. And this was after we’d all morally moved on from disposable coffee cups and plastic water bottles. Greta Thunberg, the climate strikes and the actions of Extinction Rebellion made daily news.

Then the pandemic happened.

This week’s UN climate report points out the current course we are on. As one big earth family we are all, in our individual nations, meant to be doing our best, to limit global warming to a 1.5 Celsius degree increase to avert the worst of climate disaster— drought, flooding, fires, and famine.

Failed goals

There have been the Paris goals, adopted in 2015, at the Paris Climate Accord. There have been the annual COP meetings, the UN Climate Change Conferences, where more goals were agreed.

And yet, this week, seven years on from Paris, the UN report shows the world is on track for a temperature rise of 2.4 to 2.6 degrees Celsius.

We are not just failing. The way we are going, we are actively achieving an astounding climate catastrophe. Many people’s children, never mind grandchildren, will be in their late 70s when the reality of this is being lived out. We’re no longer borrowing our children’s future; we’re burying it after cremation.

At last year’s Cop26 in Glasgow, we all pledged to take less than 1% off projected 2030 greenhouse gas emissions. This week’s UN report says we need to update that to 45% in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

That’s a steep transformation needed across all sectors of society, from fashion to transport, and from housing to food. How many are onboard?

World leaders, next week, once again meet for another climate conference. Cop27 takes place in Egypt. Guess who’s not going? Britain’s newly-elected prime minister Rishi Sunak, who last year presented a large green briefcase budget at COP26. There will be no passing on of the baton, from one presiding country to the next, as Sunak has excused himself due to “domestic commitments”.

“Fine”, you might say, until you find out one of his first moves in power was to remove both his climate minister and his COP26 minister from attending cabinet, as they had done under his predecessors.

A climate change activist makes her feelings about Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro clear. Under Bolsonaro, deforestation is up 70%. Picture: Luis Robayo/AFP via Getty

On Sunday, millions of people across Brazil will vote in the final round of their presidential election. They will choose between right-wing incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Scientists say, we, and the Amazon rainforest, cannot afford another term of Bolsonaro. The future of the world’s largest rainforest is on the ballot.

Under Bolsonaro, and in just four years, deforestation is up 70%. This is a rainforest that dutifully removes more than one billion tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. At one point, just 20 to 30 years ago, it removed double that.

Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP, said this about the latest UN report: “We had our chance to make incremental changes, but that time is over. Only a root-and-branch transformation of our economies and societies can save us from accelerating climate disaster.”

The word “economies” is so important. It matters where big money gets invested, as in the case of Shein and funds following our buying habits of ultra-fast fashion.

In Texas right now, a law has been passed (Senate Bill13) that prohibits any state retirement or investment funds ($300bn) from doing business with financial firms that consider environmental impact in their investments. The Lone Star state is boycotting green investments. Seven other states are considering following suit.

To end on a note of hope, in 2014, there were $52bn divested from fossil fuels, according to the Global Fossil Fuel Divestment Commitment Database. That number, eight years later, now stands at $40.43 trillion divested.

COP27 starting next weekend in Egypt matters more than ever. Let’s stub out our cigarette and summon the will to care about the climate again.

CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB