It seems far from our expectations that the COP will end with progress, or at least with progress, even symbolically! How far away was also the day in 2017 when the withdrawal from the Paris agreement by Donald Trump, who had just taken office in the White House, caused shockwaves and global unity (or nearly so) against the United States!
Currently, given the geopolitical climate, we cannot hope that COP 30, which will open this Monday in Belém (Brazil), at the gateway of the Amazon, will end in the least environmentally damaging way. And counting rare allies in a truly divided world, hoping today’s friends don’t turn into tomorrow’s enemies.
This shows the degree of slope that we have continued to lower since 2017 in this area. Because America is no longer content with breaking away from the Paris agreement, they are literally waging war against climate scientists and the reality of climate change, which they describe, with embarrassment, as “joke”, tried to infiltrate the bodies responsible for pursuing this issue, and in particular the COP.
That doesn’t mean everything is lost, quite the opposite. First, “The United States is not just about the White House”, as our Washington correspondent wrote. Thus, these difficulties can – or should – push Europe to become more aggressive and united. One could say, this was a question of life and death. For that reason, our front page has a deliberate disaster tone, in the hope that it will help spark a start.
Amazingly, this is not a team Release who invented what we call the “headline”, namely title a. It was a reader, Sébastien D. who, on Saturday evening at the Philharmonie de Paris, participated in the 24 hours of Libé, and especially in our meeting with someone who, spontaneously, proposed this “aCOPalypse” that seemed very appropriate to us and was welcomed by a packed room that clearly cares deeply about environmental issues. Proof that all hope is not lost.
