Good news and climate treaties

If you read the daily news, you often get the sense that the world is falling apart at a progressively faster pace. Wars, climate breakdown, democratic decline: there’s a lot of doom and gloom to report on. There’s certainly been a lot of bad climate news in the last few years, including in Canada and the U.S. Worsening wildfires, floods, hurricanes and heatwaves are all increasingly attributable to climate change. While it’s important to report on these crises, there’s other news too—good news—that’s just as important. 

The problem with good news, especially related to a major global issue like climate change, is that it comes slowly, and is often hard to identify right away. Bad news is swifter and more extreme. But there is good news to be found, often at the small-scale community level, as people around the world adapt to and address the threats they are facing.

There’s also good news on the global scale in the form of climate treaties that are being signed and enacted. Which is why I think we should care about climate agreements and why they should bring us hope.

Climate change is too big of a problem for countries to solve alone: we need to work together. International climate treaties and agreements are a key part of this global cooperation. The most important climate meeting is the yearly Conference of the Parties (COP). Every year global leaders, policymakers, activists, and community representatives gather to discuss the climate crisis and agree on collective actions to keep our planet livable.  The most well-known of these agreements is the Paris Agreement, which was signed in 2015, but there have been many others.

It can be hard to imagine almost 200 countries agreeing to something, let alone actually acting on that agreement. Just think about how hard it is to get even five of your friends to decide on a movie to watch together! While some agreements do struggle to result in real changes, the reality is that some very important agreements have seen success. Climate treaties work!

On of my favourite examples of a successful agreement is the Montreal Protocol, signed in 1987. If you were alive in the 1980s or 90s you might remember the warnings about the “ozone hole,” a thinning of the protective ozone layer in the earth’s atmosphere that protects us from ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Scientists realized that this damage was being caused by chemicals that were often used in refrigerators, air conditioners, and aerosols. So, countries gathered and came up with a plan to end the production, use, and trade of these chemicals. They developed and agreed to certain limits, as well as reporting systems, and varying responsibilities for countries from different income levels. This treaty was the first in UN history to be signed and enacted by all countries! Since this treaty was signed over 35 years ago, countries have successfully regulated these chemicals, the damage has been halted and the ozone layer is beginning to recover!

This treaty took extraordinary cooperation and collective will to be as successful as it was. But it illustrates that it is possible to get all countries to agree on the severity of a threat and take action to address its causes. The success of the Montreal Protocol gives me hope for the climate agreements that our governments have signed and are working to implement. Scientific consensus on the threat of climate change has long existed, and public and political consensus continues to grow. More and more Canadians want climate action from their governments.

And that is another reason why climate treaties give me hope: they remind me that I am not alone. My hopes and fears, my worries about the future and concern for the places and people I love, are all shared by communities and people around the world. And despite struggles and shortcomings, corporate lobbying and geopolitics, every year nearly every country comes together to gather around the same table to discuss the shared goal of a healthy planet for all. That is some good climate news!

The next gathering, COP29, will be held from November 11-22. This is a good time to let our elected officials know that we are paying attention to climate action, and we want just and generous global responses. In the United States you can write to your representatives here, and in Canada here.