Why it is so difficult to tackle climate change

Sixty years ago, the Club of Rome's report "Limits to Growth" already projected how S human activity was going to change the planet, heating up the climate through carbon emissions that would raise the sea level, change weather and damage food, water and natural resources.

- ANDREW SHENG

Since most people do not understand how their individual activities change the planet, scientists worked hard to provide more evidence, but economists thought they had a perfect market solution. If carbon markets can be created to price carbon costs and benefits, emitters could pay those who are willing to sequester carbon at the right price. Unfortunately, carbon markets are still nascent in most countries and are so fragmented that their impact is limited. People don't trade carbon if they don't understand it.

Dealing with climate change is a complex system change. This is tough because everyone is connected or interdependent in this complex world.

This leads to "collective action traps".

Human beings find it difficult to work together because of different values, objectives and circumstances. Each expects the other to act, whereas if all do not cooperate, nothing will change.

Like a network of individuals bound to each other, one virus can take the whole network down. This inability to act is called Tragedy of the Commons, because individuals for their selfish action, destroy the commons, or what is considered public good.

When the corporate world adopts ESG (environment, society and governance) standards to improve corporate social responsibility (CSR), it forgets that all three are entangled. Fundamentally, poor human governance is actually the evil that creates environmental destruction and social injustices.

There are essentially three broad categories of governance - state, market, or civil society (communities - the smallest being the family). State institutions are essentially hierarchical, top-down governance, with siloed bureaucracies that often work against each other for their own interests.