The failure of a generation

The Guardian has a story about how political leaders in rich countries have decided that nothing was going to come out of international climate negotiations until 2020, and that's if we're lucky. At the same time, the IPCC has released a report which explains, very cautiously (one does not want to repeat the Himalayan glaciers mistake), that greenhouse gases building up in the atmosphere, among other factors, has changed the frequency and severity of some extreme weather events. Basically, climate change is already happening, which is no big news, but should remind political leaders of their responsibilities.

Now, as we say in French, "la critique est aisée mais l'art est difficile". It's easy to lay blame on other people's feet. It undeniably is. But there's a difference between doing poorly and failing spectacularly. As a West European, I have grown accustomed to moral and leadership failure on many, many issues : the economy, human rights, and yes, the environment. But never before I have felt this let down by my leaders. These 50 something, conservative, laissez-faire ideologues have been unable to rise to the challenges that the very same policies they are still defending have created. In my opinion, there is a clear connection between the methodical, systematic dismantling of public powers since the 70s and the inability of governments to properly tackle the many crises they are facing. And this applies to the mother of all crises, ie the environmental crisis. States have become an empty shell, pretending to govern by issuing laws that are not implemented (by lack of means and / or political will) and expanding corporate powers to a level that's not only dangerous but also wholly detrimental to public interest. And now, these empty shells should re-engineer the world economy towards a drastic reduction of GHG emissions? Not gonna happen unless political power is willing to twist some corporate arms. 

We may be flooded by talks of how "green growth" is an excellent opportunity for companies, it is nonetheless obvious that companies will have to make sacrifices if reductions are to go down, and if the environment, or what's left of it, is to be preserved. But who, among political leaders will face business groups that fund their campaigns to tell them that companies will go through blood, toil and tears because, well however painful it will be in the short run, it is the smartest thing to do ? None that I know. Not Obama, not Sarkozy, not Merkel, not Cameron. Who will declare that the era of strong government has come, and that NPM-inspired public policies have to end once and for all ? Stop searching, you're not going to find anyone. 

Instead, these so-called leaders have decided to drop the ball, and to wait until a new generation (mine) seizes it. In the meantime, and until babyboomers retire, we are to live in a society of mass unemployment, rising social inequalities, and "fiscal consolidation" (I love this expression). If that isn't a perfect way to wait for your turn...  Every generation of leaders has failed in one way or another. But, until recently, they had the decency to give following generations the means to succeed. This is clearly no longer the case. 

For all the talks about sustainable development, it would seem that this generation has lost sight of what sustainable actually means : doing things that will not negatively impact future generations. 

Leadership is dead.