When will politicians begin to appreciate the scale of the climate crisis, and their role in addressing it?

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If you want to be depressed read this, from The Guardian:

Governments are spending vastly more in support of fossil fuels than on low-carbon energy in rescue packages triggered by the coronavirus crisis, new data has shown, despite rhetoric from many countries in support of a “green recovery”.

Data from the Energy Policy Tracker, a new research effort by several civil society groups, shows that at least $151bn (£120bn) of bailout cash has been spent or earmarked so far to support fossil fuels by the G20 group of large economies. Only about a fifth of this spending is conditional on environmental requirements such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions or cleaning up pollution.

The G20 countries are directing about $89bn (£71bn) in stimulus spending to clean energy, despite most of those governments being publicly committed to the Paris agreement on climate change.

In fairness, this is wildly messed up by US policy.

And not all Green New Deal spending is on energy, of course, so the data may be skewed.

But, this is still evidence of failing. And we have to do very much better to have a chance of continuing life as we even remotely recognise it.

When will they appreciate the scale of the issue they are facing?


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