“It is my deep conviction that we have come up with an ambitious and balanced agreement. Today it is a moment of truth.”
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius spoke these words as he declared that the Paris Climate Change conference known as COP21 had reached an historic multilateral agreement. It is our sincere hope that he is right and that people of all countries see this as a call to action — It is the beginning of a process, and not the end.
The agreement is significant – nearly 200 countries have committed to a goal of limiting temperature increases to no more than 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels, rather than the 2 degrees that appeared to be the target just two weeks ago. The agreement is the product of a lot of hard work by many people. From where I sit it seems that much credit is due to French President Hollande and UN Climate Chief Christiana Figures. As Canadians, we are delighted to see a change in the position of the Canadian delegation from obstructionist to constructive.
As important as this agreement is, it is just the beginning. The work lies ahead and we will face many obstacles and difficult choices in pursuing it. To achieve the goals set in Paris, we will need to use the agreement as a framework to help us maintain our collective resolve as we face the challenges of necessary change together. As consumers, we have a big impact on carbon emissions – we make choices with far reaching consequences when we spend our dollars. Consumers reward the behaviors of everyone in the supply chain with every purchase we make: Participants in the supply chain do what the monetary rewards incent them to do. To curb extreme climate change, we will have to change deeply embedded common practices by changing the influence of monetary rewards. Taxing carbon will help with this and it can work more quickly and more effectively if we understand it and if we consciously support behaviors we want to encourage in supply chains.
At Birds and Beans our founding mission to preserve biodiversity directly supports climate objectives: preserving habitat is preserving forests. And preserving forests has been identified in Paris as a critical component to achieving climate objectives.
Sadly, during the decade and a half that we have offered this climate and habitat friendly coffee, we have seen an explosion in demand for unrecyclable plastic single serve pods containing unsustainable sun grown coffee. Single use coffee pods are the source of a great deal of profit (coffee offered in pods nets out to about $50 per pound!) while convenience brands ignore adverse environmental impact of their coffee and other unsustainable food offerings.
We maintain that using a grinder, a kettle and a drip filter holder is just as convenient a method of brewing a single cup of coffee, but has the merit of supporting an entirely sustainable supply chain. And the superior flavour in the cup is incomparable! This is one example of the kind of change that we as citizens can make as climate objectives are pursued.
Our government reached an agreement because they believed it to be an expression of our collective will. As policy changes result in choosing sustainability over convenience, waste and unchecked growth, we will have to demonstrate our support. Let us make sure that our commitment runs deep and that no future government will be tempted to break the agreement for their own short term political gain.