We never had Paris: Climate accords and human progress

Abstract

Stephen Gardiner describes the climate crisis as a “perfect moral storm” where several factors converge to challenge our ability to behave ethically. Gardiner makes a convincing case that effective global cooperation on climate change is less likely by virtue of the problem being genuinely global and strongly intergenerational. Moreover, the crisis crosses species boundaries and manifests in a setting where our institutions are weak.

                Yet, calling the failure of Paris a “perfect moral storm” implies that, but for factors analogous to the kind of freak meteorological conditions that make for perfect storms, effective global cooperation would be within reach. Gardiner’s actual conclusion is more dismal than his borrowed metaphor suggests, though, because what Gardiner describes as a perfect storm in the arena of global diplomacy is business as usual. The Paris Agreement’s breakdown is not a freak outlier. It is not a rare convergence from multiple directions of singularly bad luck. Global diplomacy failing to solve this difficult problem is normal. It is not preordained. It is not guaranteed. But it is predictable.